Daily news summary
PM Babiš presents President Zeman with government line-up
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš met with President Zeman at Prague Castle on Sunday to present him with the new cabinet line-up. Mr Babiš said after the meeting that his advisor and former labour and social affairs minister František Koníček will not be part of the new cabinet. However, he refused to disclose the names of ANO nominees for ministerial posts.
The appointment of the new government may be postponed due to a dispute over the Social Democrat’s choice of foreign minister, Miroslav Poche, who is opposed by the president and by the Communist Party.
The president claims that Mr. Poche, who had openly supported his opponent, Jiří Drahoš, in the recent presidential elections, is soft on migrants. Mr. Zeman said he will meet with Mr Poche next week and ask him to reconsider his nomination.
Communist Party not to support government with MEP Poche
The Czech Communist party will not support the minority government created by PM and ANO party leader Andrej Babiš if the Social Democrats stick to MEP Miroslav Poche as their nominee for the post of foreign minister.
Communist party leader Vojtěch Filip made the statement in a debate programme on Czech Television on Sunday, calling Mr. Poche an untrustworthy person.
Leader of the Social Democrats, Jan Hamáček, insists on the nomination of Mr Poche, but admits that the ultimatum from the Communist Party may be a serious obstacle in forming a viable government.
French president, Czech PM to mark Czech Armed Forces Memorial Day in Darney
French President Emmanuel Macron, along with Czech and Slovak prime ministers Andrej Babiš and Petr Pellegrini, will attend a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak armed forces, the French weekly Vosges matin wrote this week.
The event will take place on June 30 at a memorial site in Darney in the north-east of France, where some 6,000 Czechoslovak legionaries swore allegiance to the emerging Czechoslovakia on June 30, 1918.
Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou votes against nuclear waster storage site
The inhabitants of Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou, a village in the Vysočina region between Bohemia and Moravia, voted overwhelmingly against the construction of a nuclear waste storage site on their land in a referendum on Saturday.
Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou is one of nine Czech locations being considered by experts for the purposes of a nuclear waste store. About 45 percent of the village’s inhabitants took part in the vote, which makes the referendum valid.
Memorial marking post-war massacre of Germans unveiled near Přerov
A new memorial marking a postwar massacre of Carpathian Germans was unveiled on Sunday afternoon on the Švédské šance hill near the Moravian town of Přerov.
Shortly after the end of WWII, in June 1945, Czechoslovak soldiers shot more than 260 Carpathian Germans on the site, most of them women and children. The event is considered one of the worst acts of revenge taken on German-speaking inhabitants in postwar Czechoslovakia.
The monument, a four meter high wrought-iron cross, was created by artisan blacksmith Jiří Jurda.
Ballet dancer Darja Klimentová among recipients of this year’s Trebbia award
The Trebbia foundation for artists and art benefactors will hand out its annual awards at a ceremony in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle on Sunday evening. The prize for lifetime achievement will go to Czech opera singer Eva Randová.
Slovak photographer Zuzana Mináčová and Czech-born Darja Klimentová, former Prima Ballerina of English National Ballet, will be among the recipients of the award for creative activities.
Weather
Monday is expected to be slightly overcast with scattered showers and daytime highs ranging between 22 and 26 degrees Celsius.
