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With the lower house due to vote on its dissolution on Tuesday, there has been a great deal of speculation regarding how this development will affect given political parties and who may or may not support the motion. But how does the public feel about early elections, the rule of the caretaker government and the highly publicized possibility of ex-president Vaclav Klaus returning to active politics. A flash poll conducted jointly by the Agencies Median and STEM/MARK indicates that above all Czechs want change and they want it fast. I called the

Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will visit Prague in mid-September, where she has accepted an invitation to address Forum 2000, a conference bringing together leading world thinkers and freedom fighters in support of democracy and civil society. Forum 2,000, established by the late Czech president Vaclav Havel, consistently invited the Burmese dissident leader to its meetings as a show of support in the years when she was under house arrest and did what it could to highlight her fight for democracy. Forum

This week half a dozen pianos have appeared at squares, train stations and other locations in Prague. Some passers-by have been taking the opportunity to tinkle the ivories themselves, while their random, impromptu performances have been bringing smiles to the faces of many more. And the organisers of the latest attempt to liven up Prague’s public spaces are already planning to expand the project.

If MPs vote to dissolve the lower house next week, Czechs will be going to the polls in two or two to three months’ time. Given the lack of time for full-scale campaigns, parties say they will spend less than they would ahead of regular elections. However, two NGOs have their doubts about that, and say they will closely monitor the parties’ fundraising and spending.

The Czech Republic’s longest-ever recession has come to an end. Preliminary figures just released by the Czech Statistics Office show that the economy grew by 0.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013. The upturn is the first recorded after six straight quarters saw contraction.

The Czech capital is currently hosting Prague Pride 2013, a week-long series of gay pride events, including open-air performances, concerts, exhibitions and debates. Now in its third year, the LGBT festival has become the biggest of its kind in central and Eastern Europe, attracting thousands of visitors from at home and abroad. The theme of this year’s Prague Pride is “coming out” and one of the foreign guests who attended Tuesday’s debate on coming out in politics is U.S. Congressman David Cicilline. In a brief interview for Radio Prague he explained

The prime minister of the caretaker government, Jiří Rusnok on Tuesday handed his resignation to President Miloš Zeman, a week after his cabinet failed to win approval from the lower house. Mr Rusnok and his ministers will however remain in power until after the next general election.

The Civic Democratic Party (or ODS) has been the dominant political party on the centre-right throughout its 22-year history. But over the last few years, its position gradually changed with defeats at the national and regional levels piling up and a corruption scandal hitting the former prime minister in June. With early elections slated for the autumn, can the party stop its freefall? And is there anyone among the Civic Democrats who can turn the party’s fortunes around?

With the lower house set to vote on its dissolution next week and a general election likely to take place in October, Czech political parties are scrambling to finalize their candidates’ lists and making last-minute decisions on their election campaign priorities. In addition to the usual slogans, a new topic is expected to dominate the campaign: the role of the president in Czech politics.

Next Friday Czech MPs will vote on whether to dissolve the lower house with the aim of setting up early elections. Four parties capable of putting together the constitutional majority required have - at least on paper – agreed that early elections are the next step. But will the vote in the end be in favour? And what can we expect from President Miloš Zeman?