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Just two months after it was launched the reconstruction of the country’s main highway, linking the Prague and Brno, has hit a snag. Work on a nine-kilometer stretch of the road has ground to a halt due to what the firm undertaking the reconstruction describes as “unexpected problems”.

Three former MPs charged with bribe taking were released this week after the Supreme Court ruled their alleged wrong-doing was covered by parliamentary immunity. However, they may not be completely in the clear just yet; the state attorney overseeing the case is looking into ways to get around the ruling and put the three in the dock after all.

Prague residents and visitors may have noticed during their wanderings small brass plaques set into the pavement in front of apartment blocks and houses. They are ‘Stolpersteine’, literally ‘stumbling stones’, originally the work of a German artist named Gunter Demnig who wanted to remind residents in his city of Cologne of the victims of the Nazis who once lived there. The project has since spread across Europe, and this morning the latest ‘Stolperstein’ was laid in Prague, outside the last home of the Czech writer and journalist Milena

One plank of a major police investigation that led to the recent fall of the government of Petr Nečas has ground to a halt. Following a Supreme Court ruling that their actions were covered by parliamentary immunity, three former MPs from Mr. Nečas’s Civic Democrats will not now stand trial for bribe taking. But where does the ruling leave the former prime minister himself?

Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision, which confirmed immunity for three former Civic Democratic MPs securing their freedom from prosecution for deals made while in parliament, has not only raised serious doubts over one of the biggest corruptions cases in Czech history, but also over the ability of local prosecutors to effectively fight corruption. We spoke to political analyst and commentator Jiří Pehe about what implications this situation will have for the Czech political scene.

Six months after the country’s first direct presidential election, many Czech politicians are already questioning the wisdom of having introduced a popular vote for the highest office in the land. The authoritarian manner in which President Miloš Zeman has handled the drawn-out political crisis has raised concerns for the country’s parliamentary democracy and opened up a debate on restricting the powers of the president.

Michal Babák, an MP and a deputy chairman of the Public Affairs party, responding to a question about the new Finance Minister Jan Fischer on Czech Television and attempting to criticize his predecessor Mirsolav Kalousek, made a provocative statement. He said: “No Jew can be as bad for the state coffers as Kalousek.” It is important to note that Mr. Kalousek is a Catholic, while Mr. Fischer is Jewish. Although a number of politicians have distanced themselves from Mr. Babák’s statement, which he has since defended, no serious repercussions have

The finance minister in the new Czech interim government, Jan Fischer, has come under fire over his own financial record. Soon after he was linked with the post, Mr Fischer received over five million crowns from sponsors to settle debts stemming from his presidential campaign. That has earned him conflict of interest accusations, and could also threaten the future of the cabinet.

President Miloš Zeman was at loggerheads with former Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg on making Livia Klausová ambassador to Bratislava and Communist MEP Vladimír Remek the country’s envoy in Russia. The freshly appointed interim government backed by Mr. Zeman should now rubberstamp those appointments. But what else can we expect from the president and new minister Jan Kohout in the foreign policy field? I discussed those questions with Petr Drulák, director of Prague’s Institute of International Affairs.

When the freshly installed caretaker government was first mooted, it was widely assumed that it would have virtually zero chance of winning a confidence vote in the lower house. However, with the parties divided and individual MPs wavering, the prospect that the new ministers could rule for the best part of a year appears to be becoming more realistic.