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Czech political parties have one thing going for them: that is the generous system of state funding for their activities. But that system has come under attack for its cost, the flaws in the party financing rules and the policing of those rules. In this week’s Talking Point, party financing is put under the spotlight.

The Czech budget deficit and overall public debt have been thrust into the spotlight. Caretaker Prime Minister Jan Fischer repeated this week he would only stay on until the middle of next year if a tax raising and cost cutting budget is passed. But while headlines warning of a ballooning budget deficit and meltdown in international confidence abound, not everyone agrees about the nature of the threat and urgency needed to tackle it.

Driving on busy dual-carriageways such as this in the centre of Prague can be a hairy experience, and those who have tried it often come away with a rather jaded view of Czech drivers. Indeed, the Czech Republic has one of the highest rates of road fatalities in all of Europe; last year, nearly 1,100 people died on Czech roads.

The 2006 James Bond remake Casino Royale is becoming an endangered species. The film was mainly shot at Prague’s famous Barrandov studios and used Prague and Karlovy Vary as a backdrop for many scenes. But Casino Royale is one of a dwindling number of blockbusters which have recently come to the Czech Republic. Revenues from foreign films have tumbled in recent years. That has put the spotlight on whether the government should fall into line with other countries and provide incentives for bringing them back.

Two weeks ago Ottawa imposed visa restrictions on Czechs after more than 1,700 Czech Roma, or gypsies, sought refugee status in Canada in the first six months of this year. That was a huge increase on the 650 or so in the whole of 2008, which was already a high figure. So, what led so many Czech Romanies to apply for asylum in Canada?

Prague is home to some of the most exquisite medieval architecture – and not to mention some of the finest beer – in Europe. But the number of foreign visitors was down some 20% in the first three months of this year, bad news for a city so dependent on tourism. The Prague Tourist Board has now taken the unprecedented step of “outsourcing” the running of seven of the city’s most famous towers to a private company, a move that not everyone is happy with.

Three letters - PPP - were once on the tip of everyone’s tongue in the Czech Republic as a formula for carrying out large infrastructure projects. Public Private Partnerships then ceased to figure large in the political and public vocabulary. Now, PPP appears to be on the verge of a comeback as the economic crisis squeezes central and local government coffers. Even so, the arguments about the merits of PPP projects have not disappeared.

This Tuesday is the final day of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency before the country hands over to Sweden on July 1. The six-month presidency has seen the Czechs tackle a global financial crisis, an energy dispute between Russia and Ukraine, a crisis in Gaza, and the toppling of the country’s own government halfway through. So how did they do? That’s what we ask in this week’s Talking Point:

Czechs are living a political super year with three elections within the space of 12 months. After the regional and Senate elections and elections to the European Parliament, political parties are gearing up for early general elections in October. Analysts say that at the end of all this, the Czech political scene could emerge in a whole new perspective.

The Czech media is regularly ranked as one of the freest in the world, but recent events have called into question how well that freedom is utilised where political extremism is involved. Stemming from a number of heavily publicised incidents in recent weeks, many people are asking if it’s in fact media attention that’s actually feeding the occurrence of right-wing extremism. This week’s Talking Point discusses the events that have brought the journalists themselves into the spotlight.