Archive: Domestic affairs | Regional politics Regional politics
Political pundit: Abolishing three ministries merely attempt at distracting attention from government’s real problems
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 to political pundit
Jiří Pehe. More
Towns get new powers in fighting air pollution
The lower house of parliament on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill
which will provide local administrations with the means to fight air
pollution more effectively. In the event of a smog alert mayors can order
the biggest pollutants to scale down production, ban high-emissions cars
from city centres and scrap toll on ring roads in order to reduce the
amount of traffic. Town mayors and environment activists had long been
pushing for the amendment and Radio Prague asked Vojtěch Kotecký from
Friends of the Earth how effective he thinks it will be in practice. More
Top court rejects complaint against gerrymandering in Prague’s local elections
The Czech Constitutional Court dismissed on Tuesday a complaint by three
political parties contesting last October’s local elections in the
capital. Public Affairs, the Green and the European Democrat parties argued
the elections were unfair due to gerrymandering, dividing Prague into seven
districts, which diminished their prospects at the polls. The court said
however the parties failed to prove the division was intended to hurt their
chances.
More
Towns want controversial powers to deal with transients and petty criminals
Mayors from 51 communities across the Czech Republic met this week to
discuss problems their constituencies are having with transients, loiterers
and petty criminals, most of whom the towns say are Roma. The result was a
letter to the government asking for greater local authority to dissuade and
punish problematic citizens. The specific measures though are
controversial. More
Pavel Kohout: unconventional economist and government advisor
Pavel Kohout is an economist who seems seldom out of the media. He recently
created a stir when he announced he was leaving the government’s advisory
committee, NERV, and criticised government willingness to tackle
multi-billion crown corruption in public tenders. That furore appears to
have blown over and Mr. Kohout seems on course to give further advice to
the government and the new political party, Public Affairs. I asked him how
he got involved in economics in the first place. More
TOP 09 in danger of being sidelined at Prague City Hall
Following the recent municipal elections, it appeared that the winners in
the capital, TOP 09 (with its candidate for mayor Zdeněk Tůma) would head
city hall. But a little over a week later, that possibility seems fairly
remote. Following negotiations, the other main parties, the Civic Democrats
together with the Social Democrats, appear ready to bypass the winner
entirely, allowing things to remain ‘business as usual’. More
Can citizen power change the face of Czech town halls?
One of the most startling features of recent elections in big cities, towns
and local councils across the Czech Republic was the success of independent
citizens’ groups in winning seats. Many campaigned on a simple ticket of
throwing the incumbent big parties or coalitions, often tarnished with
mismanagement or corruption, out of power. So do those elections mark a
radical change or just a blip and is there any reason to hope that the
blight of local government corruption can be conquered? In this week’s
Talking Point we look at the phenomenon and chances of a Czech
anti-corruption drive.
More
Czech government gives green light for far reaching development blueprint
The Czech caretaker government has approved far reaching plans for how the
country could develop over the next decades. The controversial development
plan earmarks where strategic infrastructure could be placed. While the
government insists no final decisions have been taken on what goes where,
critics beg to differ.
More
Could Communists replicate first participation in regional governments at national level?
Two weeks after regional elections which saw a landslide victory for the
opposition Social Democrats, governments in all of the Czech Republic’s
13 regions are now being formed by the wining party. In six of them, the
governments are most likely to rely on the support of the Communist Party.
They will either enter straightforward coalitions with the Social
Democrats, or support Social Democrat minority governments. This represents
a significant advance for the Communists in the post-1989 period.
More
Mayors of Prague, Moravian village swap jobs
It started as a dispute over the distribution of tax revenues. It ended up
as a rather interesting sociological experiment. Mayors of small towns and
villages have long complained that far too much tax-payers’ money ends up
in the capital Prague, and far too little ends up in their own
municipalities. So to see how the other half lives, the mayor of Prague and
the mayor of Suchá Loz – a village in southeast Moravia – are swapping
jobs.
More
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