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Current AffairsSocial Democrats meet to choose new party leader
The Czech Republic’s biggest opposition party, the left-of-centre Social
Democratic Party, begins a two day congress on Friday which should elect a
new leader. Former leader Jiří Paroubek stepped down after disappointing
election results in May last year cast the party into the opposition. The
two leading contenders are former finance minister and acting party chief,
Bohuslav Sobotka, and the governor of Southern Moravia, Michal Hašek.
Political analyst Jiří Pehe spoke with Jan Richter about the meeting in
Brno and the biggest impact of the leadership election. More
Current AffairsTop court rules last year’s budget cuts unconstitutional
The Czech Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that the government’s
austerity package, adopted in late 2010, was approved in breach of the
constitution. The package, which slashed social and other benefits to lower
the deficit in public finances, was pushed through Parliament after having
called a “legislative emergency”. The court said this was unacceptable,
and gave the government until the end of the year to have the laws
re-approved. More
Current AffairsGovernment backtracks on pension reform funding plan
The Czech coalition government has backtracked on its plan of how to pay
for an overhaul of the country’s pension system. The basic concept of the
reform – the addition of private pension funds into the system –
remains unchanged. Under pressure from all sides, however, coalition
leaders now propose a lower hike in the value added tax than originally
planned. More
Current AffairsGovernment under pressure to make concessions on pension reform package
Government moves to marry pension reform and large hikes in Value Added Tax
are looking increasingly ragged. Leaders of the main coalition parties are
meeting on Thursday to decide their final stance over what was supposed to
be an already done deal. And the increasingly under pressure finance
minister has walked into a row with editors of newspapers and news weeklies
over the impact of the VAT hike on the press. More
Current AffairsKanzelsberger: small publishers & bookstores will be hard hit by VAT hike
Publishers, booksellers as well as many consumers in the Czech Republic are
far from happy about the government’s intention to raise the VAT on goods
including books to a uniform 20 percent to help pay for its pension reform.
Those in the book market fear that it will be hard hit and say that in
principle books as a cultural mainstay should be exempt, and that has led
to an online petition now signed by more than 80,000. But so far –
despite the culture minister’s own misgivings over the higher VAT on
books – there has been no signal from the government that books should be
left out.
More
Current AffairsProposed Czech pension reforms divide pundits
The Czech government has agreed the main lines of one of its most ambitious
reforms, that of the creaking pension system. But the formula advanced
seems to have won few friends. Trade union leaders say it goes too far and
some leading economists say it does not go far enough. More
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