Current Affairs | All stories

The caretaker government of Prime Minister Jan Fischer – originally set up for a brief five-month period – is now set to rule the country until regular general elections scheduled for May 2010. On Wednesday, Mr Fischer addressed the lower house of the Czech Parliament, and outlined his cabinet’s major priorities for the coming months.

Mum behind the wheel of a truck, while dad stays at home to look after the children. While this concept might seem completely normal to most kids, Czech children may still find the idea shocking, at least according to the European Contact Group, a non-profit organization that promotes equal opportunities for men and women. Within a broader effort to break that stereotype they have produced special work sheets to help teachers in kindergartens and primary schools address the issue.

In last month’s opinion poll the interim government of Jan Fischer received unusually positive feedback from the public compared to previous cabinets. Carried out by the STEM polling agency just four months after the cabinet was appointed, the poll suggests that 44 percent of Czechs trust the government, with the prime minister himself enjoying as much as 83 percent of public support. Radio Prague spoke to the head of STEM, Jan Hartl, and asked him first what was behind those figures.

Less than a week after Ivan Hašek stepped down as manager of the Czech international football team his successor has been announced. Michal Bílek, hitherto Hašek’s assistant, has been given a three-year contract and a clear task: rebuild the Czech squad and lead them to Euro 2012. But does the 44-year-old have what it takes?

New management has been flown into Czech carrier Czech Airlines. The changes come ahead of key decisions about the loss-making airline’s future. Bosses are trying to push through a restructuring programme and a controversial privatisation is still pending.

The winners of this year’s Czech Press Photo – a competition recognising the very best in Czech and Slovak photojournalism, were announced on Monday, with the main prize going to Slovak photographer Joe Klamar, who shoots for AFP. Mr Klamar won with an unusual photo from a series covering US President Barack Obama’s visit to Prague in April, including a highly-attended speech on Prague’s Hradčany square. The photo, taken on a misty and overcast day, was awarded for its originality, capturing as the jury suggested, a “symbolic dialogue” between Mr Obama and

The law faculty at Plzeň university has found itself at the centre of a huge scandal lately, after it emerged that law degrees had been awarded to students after only a few months of study, while dozens of dissertations had disappeared from its library. Is this evident corruption confined to Plzeň? That’s what the Czech Education Ministry is trying to find out with an audit – of every graduate of every Czech university since the year 2000.

The 2009 American comedy “The Brothers Bloom” is out now in the Czech Republic with the unmistakeable skyline of Prague Castle – which gets blown up in the film – immediately catching every Czech’s eye. For years, the country’s stunning locations and skilled crews attracted international filmmakers but foreign productions have recently abandoned the Czech Republic for countries offering better financial conditions to filmmakers. Now the Czech government has approved an incentives programme to revive the Czech film industry which has reached its

The past weekend saw the establishment of yet another political entity on the Czech scene- the Citizens’ Rights Party founded by supporters of the former prime minister Miloš Zeman who is set to come out of retirement. It comes hard on the heels of two other newcomers in 2009– an alternative Green party calling itself the Democratic Green Party and TOPO9 established by the former Christian Democrat finance minister Miroslav Kalousek. All three promise disgruntled Czech voters a brighter future but offer few new faces. Do these parties really provide

Just last week President Václav Klaus was not budging in his opposition to the Lisbon Treaty. The mountain of pressure he is under from virtually all corners found him at the weekend allowing for the first time that Lisbon was at this stage probably unstoppable. - It now appears that if he does get his country an exemption from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, he may eventually sign the treaty, allowing its ratification across the European Union.