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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

The storm that threatened to bring down the centre-right Czech government appears to be over, but it has left Public Affairs, the junior coalition party that started it, badly battered. As Public Affairs leaders went back to the negotiating table to debate what appear to be face-saving concessions, the smallest party in government fielded questions from reporters about the deepening split in party ranks.

A group of Czech NGOs has launched a new initiative to fight the uphill battle against corruption in the Czech Republic. Entitled You Stole Our Country, Give It Back, the initiative seeks to put Czech parliamentarians under enough public pressure to allow for a thorough probe into alleged links between politics and organized crime. The NGOs behind the new project include the Czech Helsinki Committee, the Romany advocacy group Romea, the student initiative Democracy Czech-Up as well as the Anticorruption Endowment Fund. Radio Prague spoke to the

The Czech government is teetering on collapse as the junior coalition party, Public Affairs, has said it will pull out unless a number of major concessions are met. Reactions to the demands from its coalition partners were no less than furious, and even if the party backs down - as it has on similar occasions – it seems that either the coalition or Public Affairs itself will soon collapse under the tension. Christian Falvey has this report:

The latest flare-up between Public Affairs and the two senior parties Civic Democrats and TOP 09 appears to have taken the continued existence of the centre-right cabinet to the very brink. Are we close to early elections or did the smallest party in government, in trying to gain concessions, simply overplay its hand?

On a brief working visit to the Czech Republic, German chancellor Angela Merkel met with Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas and President Václav Klaus in Prague on Tuesday. Two issues dominated the agenda: a new EU fiscal compact that is being pushed by Germany as well as differing approaches to energy policy in both countries.

Angela Merkel’s current visit to Prague is the fifth since she became German chancellor. But Ms Merkel often stayed in Prague even before she entered politics. In the 1980s, she spent some time at the then Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences where she worked at the department of theoretical physics. Professor Rudolf Zahradník recalls the times when the future German chancellor was a member of his team.

Major changes to the health care system in the Czech Republic came about this week when the government’s reform package took effect. Called the biggest reform in the last 45 years, the aim is a redefinition of how health care services are provided, and the role of the state, the facility and the patient therein.