State budget passed surprisingly fast
Next year's state budget has been passed by the lower house of Parliament in its first reading. This, unlike the past two years, was extremely fast. Despite the fact that the budget includes a deficit of 49 billion Czech crowns, more than double the original amount agreed between the Social Democrat government and the opposition Civic Democrats, who support the government via a power-sharing agreement, the whole process was remarkably smooth. Olga Szantova spoke to political analyst Jiri Pehe and asked him whether he thought this was a surprise development:
