Current Affairs | All stories

The leadership of the junior coalition party Public Affairs is meeting to debate the outcome of last week’s trial in which the party’s informal leader Vít Bárta was found guilty of bribery. Although Mr. Bárta had promised to pull out of high politics if he did not clear his name, he now says he’ll keep his seat in the lower house and he thus remains a member of the party’s deputies’ club. Radio Prague asked commentator Jiří Pehe for his thoughts on how this latest development may impact the government’s future and who is now actually running the

The Czech Foreign Ministry has vowed that in spite of severe austerity measures, this year’s budget for the country’s foreign development aid will not suffer any cuts. The Czech Development Agency is planning to spend over 430 million crowns on development projects mainly in countries that have been earmarked as priority recipients, including Mongolia, Ethiopia, Moldova, Afghanistan, and others.

A Prague court on Friday delivered a verdict in one of the most high-profile cases in recent years. The court found the unofficial leader of the coalition Public Affairs party guilty of bribery, and fellow MP and former Public Affairs chair of fraud. The case also highlighted the shady practices within the Public Affairs party which has been behind a series of government crises.

On Saturday, the 22nd edition of the prestigious Prague Writers’ Festival kicks off in the Czech capital, under the theme of “Only the future exists”. For five days, visitors will have the opportunity to attend readings, discussion panels and film screenings featuring writers from around the world. As every year, the festival brings writers of international caliber to the city, with the British novelist and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi probably the most famous guest this year. Sarah Borufka spoke to the festival’s president, Michael March, about

The government on Wednesday approved far-reaching austerity plans to gradually lower the gap in public finances to well below 3 percent of the GDP. The strategy combines savings and tax hikes that are expected to impact all strata of society. Radio Prague asked business analyst David Marek whether such extensive austerity measures were called for and who would bear the brunt of the fiscal reform.

The centre-right Czech government weathered the latest in a series of crises on Tuesday, putting aside its differences in the interest of what the prime minister called its sole raison d’être – putting the country’s finances in order. The three parties reaffirmed their commitment to implementing budget savings and tax hikes which should bring the budget deficit below 3 percent of GDP next year and down to 1.9 percent in 2014.

Czech Open 2012 is a cultural season in London that began last month and will last through to August, also during with the summer Olympic Games. Organised by the Czech Centre in London, the season offers a variety of programmes in the borough of Islington, including an exhibition called Coal and Steel and Disorient Express which is set to open, and a street art project being worked on now by two Czech and British artists.

The fate of the Czech government will be decided later on Tuesday as coalition leaders are meeting in an attempt to save the cabinet. The junior coalition Public Affairs party rocked the boat once again last week when they threatened to pull out of the coalition. But before the week was over, the party seemed happy to accept an offer by the Prime Minister to settle their disputes at the negotiating table while latest reports suggest the coalition leaders are indeed likely to reach agreement.

The World number 7 in men’s tennis, Tomáš Berdych, proved key in Davis Cup action at the weekend, helping the Czech Republic win three points against Serbia to put the Czechs through to the semi-final. Although his match against Janko Tipsarevic was a decidedly even affair he held on and at the weekend didn’t lose a single set.

Talks between the ruling government coalition’s Civic Democrats and junior partner Public Affairs on Thursday failed to produce a solution to disputes within the coalition. However, the senior Civic Democrats are considering reducing the number of ministries by three, one of the conditions posed by Public Affairs, which earlier this week threatened to quit the coalition should its demands not be met. But is the step to merge the culture, environment and regional development ministries with other existing ministries a sensible one? We put the question