News Wrap

Waiting for Klaus: Act Two; Starring: Klaus Václav; Klaus holds Europe in check because of Lisbon; It’s Václav Klaus’s move now – these and similar headlines comparing the Czech President to an actor, a theatre director, screen writer, and a chess player flooded newspapers after Ireland ratified the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum held last Friday. The EU’s attention is now set on Václav Klaus. >>> The Czech premier boarded his plane twice, but didn’t get to Barroso anyway. Due to a plane defect, Jan Fischer met on Wednesday with the Commission President José Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in a teleconference instead of in Brussels. Fischer promised to the EU the Czech Republic would complete the ratificationContinue Reading

After much debating and quarrelling, the lower house adopted an austerity measures package on Friday with the budget deficit expected to reach CZK 162.8 billion next year. Taxes will be higher and maternity leave benefits will decrease significantly. The salaries of deputies, senators, ministers and the president will be cut by 4%. ČSSD deputy Vítězslav Jandák suggested sarcastically that one deputy be executed each week in order to save money, Právo reported on Saturday. >>> Pope Benedict XVI came for a three-day visit of the largely atheist Czech Republic. A large spider appeared on the pontiff’s white robe as he addressed politicians and diplomats in Prague on Saturday afternoon (see video here). The pope wished to have apple strudel andContinue Reading

A mentally disturbed woman was riding a horse in the upper part of Wenceslas Square on Friday, holding a crucifix, praying and repeatedly calling “anticommunism”, the press has reported. “Only Martians were missing for the artistic impression to be complete,” iDnes.cz news site quoted former Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek on Thursday after a debate of party representatives on the austerity measures package that has kept politicians busy arguing the whole week. Former President Václav Havel recommended Czech politicians spend one hour a week in the new Japanese garden in the Prague Botanic Garden, as it is a good place “to quiet down, reach a certain inner harmony, to detach oneself from reality…”, ČTK reported last Friday. Watch out: Gamekeepers shootContinue Reading

Paroubek killed the elections, Paroubek, the assassin, Wild country – those were some of the headlines on the front pages of Czech newspapers on Wednesday after the ČSSD’s boycott of the vote on the dissolution of the lower chamber. Despite the political instability, the Czech crown firmed sharply against the euro on Wednesday in the best result since last November. >>> All the parties have interrupted their campaigns, a Lidové noviny headline said on Saturday. Parties fight on, Právo’s headline said on the same day. On Tuesday, Právo speculated on the compensation money that various MPs were likely to get after the expected dissolution of the lower chamber that day. >>> “Now I will have to move those boxes backContinue Reading

The printing of ballots, originally scheduled for today, has been halted, Aktuálně.cz has reported; the Constitutional Court on Thursday cancelled early elections scheduled for 9 and 10 October. The state budget with a record deficit of CZK 230 billion approved by the cabinet on Wednesday night, will not be adopted in time, media reported on Thursday. >>> Only 5% of Czech men cook regularly, a Mf Dnes headline said on Monday. “How do you feel about the hectares of gobbled up forests?” HN asked Jan Stráský, council chair of the Šumava national park in connection with the damage caused by bark beetles. After his Saturday visit to Šumava former PM Miloš Zeman calculated the damage at 32 billion. >>> TOPContinue Reading

ODS made public its election programme on Monday. There may be no elections in October and the caretaker cabinet led by Jan Fischer may not be interim in the end, the press has reported earlier this week; the Constitutional Court postponed on Tuesday the general elections in reaction to MP’s Miloš Melčák formal complaint disputing the constitutionality of the amendment that shortened the tenure of members of Parliament in order to initiate early elections. Party leaders want to push through a permanent constitutional amendment under which early elections could be held in early November. >>> “If I was a normal citizen who goes to shopping malls regularly, I would definitely buy sufficient supply of light bulbs that would suffice forContinue Reading