>>> The Czech Republic has two Prime Ministers as of Thursday. Mirek Topolánek will lead the country until the statistician Jan Fischer, the new prime minister, forms the caretaker cabinet after Easter. Disagreements about the new cabinet threw the coalition party KDU-ČSL in disarray. Explaining his relationship to the new prime minister, President Václav Klaus said in an interview for Tuesday’s Hospodářské noviny he believes Fischer has a cottage not far from his cottage, but that he does not go out for beer with Fischer. “Those who do not speak in numbers, do not know what they are talking about” says Jan Fischer’s favourite quote.
>>> Barack Obama’s speech drew a crowd of some 10,000 people to Prague Castle on Sunday morning. Obama presented what many commentators called an idealistic vision of the world without nuclear weapons. “Yes we can say no to US military base”, said the banner unfurled on the Prague Legion Bridge by anti-radar protestants. “Yes we cannabis” read the banner held by two supporters of ELF, European Legalization Front, which aims at legalization of cannabis products, at Hradčanské náměstí. All protests reacting to Barack Obama’s visit on the weekend were peaceful. An extremist demonstration in Přerov ended in violence on Saturday – nine police officers and dozens of participants of the demonstration were injured. Czech roads have been safest since 1990 – “only” 178 people died in car accidents in the first three months of 2009. ODS billboards and posters for the June EP elections campaign presented by the party on Wednesday attack the ČSSD leader Jiří Paroubek with the statement “Paroubek: Europe or the Czech Republic, I don’t give a damn about it all”. The Civic Democrats are reacting to Paroubek’s initiation of no-confidence vote in the lower house at the time of the Czech EU presidency.
>>> Temperatures have climbed to above 20 degrees Celsius this week, making April more like May. Planting mimosa or any flower in the shade of pink will ensure you keep up with the latest trends, florists and professional gardeners say, according to Tuesday’s Mf Dnes. A Median survey revealed that every other Czech has a garden.
>>> The jobless rate in the Czech Republic rose to 7.7% in March from 7.4% in February and from 5.6% a year ago, the Labour Ministry said on Wednesday. According to job portals, the profession that has been most affected by the economic crisis are drivers. Czech National Bank Governor Zdeněk Tůma predicts that the situation for the Czech economy should slowly start recovering next year. Crisis of a different kind has affected the Czech football – the Czech Football Association fired national team coach Petr Rada on Wednesday after a string of poor results and also expelled six players for a breach of discipline after the World Cup qualifying loss in Prague to Slovakia last week.
>>> At third attempt, the developer Orco posted its economic results on Tuesday – its 2008 loss of EUR 390.56 million was the worst among Czech companies in the past several years, according to Čekia agency. Only three development projects were sold nationwide in the first quarter of 2009, their total value of CZK 1.6bn representing a 70% year-on-year drop. Czech steel companies, which were only last year highly profitable, are calling for state subsidies. The automobile industry in ČR is getting its second wind – the sales of new passenger cars in March rose by 1% year-on-year to 12,410 units, press reported on Tuesday. The government and the opposition ČSSD have agreed on a car-scrapping bonus of CZK 30,000 for buyers of new cars who turn in their old cars.
>>> Prague is getting crowded. City planners and statisticians say the city’s population could reach 2 million from the current 1.2 million by 2020. Twenty-four mainly young people and children were injured in stampede in České Budějovice on Wednesday when the local private Kiss radio station tossed out vouchers in the total value of CZK 100,000 that could be exchanged for money among people gathered on the central square. Two Czech students died during the worst earthquake in Europe in the last thirty years in central Italy on Monday.
>>> The biggest debtor of the Czech state is Cuba. It owes CZK 6.3bn to ČR. The Cuban regime refuses to deal with ČR about the debt. Debt collectors will no longer be legitimized to seize big property such as a house in cases when debtors owe much smaller amounts, according to the new amendment approved by the cabinet on Monday.
>>> The former choirmaster Bohumil Kulínský who started his five-and-a-half year prison sentence for sexual abuse of female members of the children’s choir Bambini di Praga on Monday is planning to form a choir in the Pankrác prison. The Prague City Court has never taken such safety measures as on Monday, the first day of trial with the Prague hotelier Bohumír Ďuričko. Ďuričko, who was chained and wearing a bulletproof vest during his transport to the court, is charged with murder of Václav Kočka junior whom he shot down last year at the launch of ČSSD leader Jiří Paroubek’s book.
>>> Books are becoming a luxury for Czechs – Jan Kanzelsberger, owner of the largest Czech bookshop chain, has announced he will close down its most profitable store “House of Books” in the lower part of Prague’s Wenceslas Square. Czech children love fantasy and sci-fi literature – their most favourite book last year was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The former head of the racist organisation Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, will visit the Czech Republic at the end of April to promote his book of modern neo-racism, ČTK reported on Tuesday.
