Czech Republic ready to repatriate ethnic Czech families from Ukraine

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Czech Republic ready to repatriate ethnic Czech families from Ukraine

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Czech Social Democrats look to protest party to form government

Czech Social Democrats look to protest party to form government
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Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:46am EDT





* Social Democrats win election by slim margin




* Leader sees cooperation with ANO and Christian Democrats




* ANO emerges as second strongest party in lower house




* Talks on forming new government could take months




By Jason Hovet




PRAGUE, Oct 27 (Reuters) – The Social Democrats will look to new centrist party ANO to help form a government after narrowly winning a Czech election that punished the establishment for sleaze and budget cuts, their party leader said on Sunday.




Bohuslav Sobotka faces the difficult task of cobbling together a majority after seven parties won seats in a national election on Saturday, while taming voices in his party that blame his leadership for a suprisingly weak election showing.




Talks could last several months and the country is likely to start 2014 with a provisional budget, which limits spending to this year’s levels.




A quarter century after the fall of Communism in the 1989 “Velvet Revolution”, Czechs have grown disillusioned with their political class and used their vote to rail against established parties that have been stained by corruption scandals.




The Social Democrats had high ambitions after seven years in opposition but only won 20.5 percent of the vote, the lowest tally of any winner in the country of 10.5 million.




Centre-right parties that ruled until their cabinet collapsed in corruption and spying allegations in June suffered a crushing defeat and said they would be in opposition.




But instead of the left, the benefactor of voters’ anger was the anti-corruption group ANO, founded two years ago by billionaire businessman Andrej Babis, likened in the media to Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi.




ANO, which describes itself as a centrist party but has a leader who emphasises a pro-business focus, emerged as the second strongest party, putting it in a king-maker role in the central European country.




Sobotka, a former finance minister, said he would talk to all parties, but added that ANO and a traditional small centrist party, the Christian Democrats, seemed to be logical partners.




“Mathematically, there could be a centre-left government with some form of cooperation with ANO and the Christian Democrats,” Sobotka said on a television talk show.




“I think the Social Democrats should focus on these talks.”




Sobotka’s Social Democrats won 50 seats in the 200-member lower house versus 47 seats for Babis’s party. The Christian Democrats won 14 seats.




MOOD CHANGES




The Social Democrats said they could agree with ANO on anti-corruption measures, such as laws requiring the publishing of public contracts or forcing politicians to declare their property.




But they will struggle to follow through on plans to raise taxes for high earners and utilities, telecoms companies and banks because of ANO’s opposition to tax hikes. Babis is also cooler on euro adoption than the pro-European Social Democrats.




As election results trickled in on Saturday, Babis said he was against joining a government. On Sunday the mood seemed to have changed, although ANO has not yet committed to joining a Social Democrat-led government or supporting it in a minority cabinet.




“We are ready to talk if someone asks us to,” said Martin Stropnicky, deputy ANO leader. “When you win 19 percent, you are in a different situation than if you have 12 or 6.”




The fragmentation of the lower house has dashed Sobotka’s hopes of forming a minority cabinet supported by the Communists, and any coalition would thus be closer to the political centre.




President Milos Zeman, who has the right to appoint prime ministers and will play an important role in the talks, said on Sunday he expected it could take two to three months to put a new government in place. The parliament will convene on Nov. 25.




Financial markets have largely ignored the election but long coalition talks could unsettle investors. Local markets are closed on Monday for a state holiday.




Zeman, a former Social Democrat who has had a long rivalry with Sobotka, angered parties in July when he pushed through a caretaker cabinet made up of his allies which will continue to rule the country until a new government is formed.





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Reuters: Bonds News

Read more about Czech Social Democrats look to protest party to form government and other interesting subjects concerning Bonds at TheDailyNewsReport.com

Provocative art: Rebel sculptor gives Czech president the finger ahead of polls

Published time: October 22, 2013 15:57

Workers anchor a boat bearing an installation work by Czech visual artist David Cerny in front of the Prague Castle in Prague October 21, 2013. (Reuters/David W Cerny)

A controversial Czech artist known for his anti-communist stance has sent a very clear message to the republic’s president ahead of parliamentary polls by installing a giant purple hand with a raised middle finger on Prague’s main river.

David Cerny, 45, placed his 10-meter statue of the hand making an obscene gesture on a pontoon boat on the Vltava River on Monday. The huge plastic sculpture is floating near the famous Charles Bridge and is pointed at the Prague Castle – the seat of leftist President Milos Zeman.

This unusual stunt comes only four days before Czech snap parliamentary elections, which may bring the Communist Party a share of indirect power for the first time since the Velvet Revolution ousted it in 1989. Zeman favors a post-election plan by the leftist Social Democrats to form a minority government with implicit support from Communists.

“This finger is aimed straight at the castle politics,” Cerny told the New York Times. “After 23 years, I am horrified at the prospect of the Communists returning to power and of Zeman helping them to do so.”

During the campaign ahead of January presidential elections, Cerny helped Zeman’s rival, charismatic aristocrat Karel Schwarzenberg of the Top 09 rightist party, who came second in the polls.

“Our president is just another reason not to live in the Czech Republic,” the artist told The Prague Post in September. “The political system here is not good, most people know that.”

Zeman was on a visit to Ukraine when the controversial installation was mounted. Through his spokesperson he declined to comment on the statue that he had not seen, Czech media reported.

Cerny is known for being provocative in his art. The floating hand is also not the first time that he has flipped the bird to make his point.

The artist first gained wide attention in 1991 when he got arrested after painting pink a monument to the Soviet tank – commemorating the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army in 1945 – and placing a raised middle finger on top of it. 

Cerny also came up with kind of a logo of a red hand, giving the finger with an obscene slogan written beneath it, referring to the Czech Communist Party. The offending finger was given even more prominence after the Rolling Stone’s Keith Richards wore a T-shirt with the logo on it on stage in 2003.

RT – NewsPost id = does not exist.

Provocative art: Rebel sculptor gives Czech president the finger ahead of polls

Czech ruling party backs speaker to be first woman PM

By Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet

PRAGUE (Reuters) – The ruling Czech Civic Democrats have proposed lower house speaker Miroslava Nemcova as the next prime minister following the resignation of Petr Necas in a corruption scandal, the party said on Wednesday.

The popular Nemcova, 60, would be the Central European country’s first woman prime minister, but the center-right party needs the consent of coalition partners and President Milos Zeman to have her lead the cabinet.

Necas stepped down on Monday, taking the entire government with him, after police charged his closest aide and seven other people, some with bribery and others with illegal spying.

“I see very well how critical and complicated (the) situation in the Czech Republic is…This is the first step. It is positive that we have found a solution quickly,” Nemcova told reporters.

A former bookshop owner from the hilly central region of Vysocina, Nemcova joined the then-newly formed Civic Democrats in 1992, when they became a symbol of market reforms and supporter of small business after the fall of communism.

The mother of one adult son joined parliament in 1998.

The deputy chief of conservative coalition partner TOP09, Miroslav Kalousek, said he respected Nemcova, 60, but saw a problem in finding a replacement for her as speaker – suggesting there may still be some horse-trading ahead.

The coalition does not have a majority in the 200-seat lower house and needs to enlist one or more independents to win a vote of confidence for a new government.

It also needs a nod from Zeman, who is a leftist and an opponent of the coalition and has the sole right to appoint prime ministers. His spokeswoman had no comment on Nemcova.

If there is no deal on a new government, Czech may hold an early election before the parliament’s four-year term ends in May. This would favor the opposition Social Democrats, who hold a commanding 20-plus point lead in polls.

Nemcova is the country’s fourth most popular politician, with 33 percent support in an April poll. She has not been linked to any backroom deals that have become a thorn in the side of many Czechs fed up with graft.

She has been loyal to Necas, who won credit by freeing up the police to go after corruption, before becoming a victim of their newfound powers.

JOBS FOR VOTES

Police charged Necas’s closest aide, Jana Nagyova, as a part of a wider investigation of political corruption which many Czechs see as endemic.

Prosecutors say Nagyova offered posts in state-owned companies to three deputies from Necas’s party last year to stop a rebellion that threatened to bring him down. Eventually the deputies gave up their parliamentary seats, saving Necas.

Necas has said he reached an agreement with the deputies, but called it a political deal that should not be seen as criminal.

The case is a big test for the prosecutor’s drive against corruption, and will also help set boundaries of acceptable behavior in political negotiations. Many Czech politicians, and some commentators, back the view held by Necas.

A lawyer for Nagyova, who is in custody, says she denies some of the allegations against her, while others argue she acted in good faith.

The European Union member country needs a government in place to complete a tender to build two new nuclear reactors at the Temelin plant in the south of the country, estimated to cost $ 10-15 billion. A consortium including Russia’s Atomstroyexport is competing against Toshiba Corp unit Westinghouse.

Whoever takes power will face lifting the country out of its longest recession in two decades caused by the euro zone debt crisis and the outgoing government’s focus on budget cutting.

(Writing by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Congress News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Czech ruling party backs speaker to be first woman PM

Czech PM in survival struggle after court keeps aide in custody

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (Reuters) – Coalition partners of Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said they were considering whether they could stay in government with him on Saturday after a court ordered the detention of his close aide on corruption charges.

Reuters: Top News

Czech PM in survival struggle after court keeps aide in custody

Czech PM in survival struggle after court keeps aide in custody

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (Reuters) – Coalition partners of Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said they were considering whether they could stay in government with him on Saturday after a court ordered the detention of his close aide on corruption charges.

Reuters: Top News

Czech PM in survival struggle after court keeps aide in custody

Czech cabinet in crisis after police sweep government offices

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said on Thursday he had no intention of resigning from his post after a series of police raids on government offices threatened to expose a web of corruption.

Reuters: Top News

Czech cabinet in crisis after police sweep government offices

Czech cabinet in crisis after police sweep government offices

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said on Thursday he had no intention of resigning from his post after a series of police raids on government offices threatened to expose a web of corruption.

Reuters: Top News

Czech cabinet in crisis after police sweep government offices