News of Radio Prague

Former Justice Minister Bures to become Social Democrats' presidential candidate

The senior partner in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party, have nominated former justice minister Jaroslav Bures as their candidate for the upcoming presidential election to replace outgoing president Vaclav Havel. Party leaders met on Saturday to choose from three candidates who emerged from an internal party referendum - Jaroslav Bures, former party chairman and prime minister Milos Zeman, and the ombudsman Otakar Motejl. Mr. Bures came second in the referendum, after Milos Zeman who later said he would run for president only if the parliament fails to elect the president and new election has to be held.

So far, three other political parties have nominated their presidential candidates. The main opposition Civic Democrats have nominated outgoing party chairman and former premier Vaclav Klaus, the Communist Party's candidate is a former communist military prosecutor Miroslav Krizenecky, and the junior coalition Christian Democrats propose Senate chairman Petr Pithart.

Visegrad Four to speak with one voice at EU summit

EU candidate countries that are members of the so-called Visegrad Four have agreed to stand united in the final negotiations with the EU at its summit to take place next week in Copenhagen. The summit will be decisive for EU expansion and the candidates still hope to achieve more favourable conditions regarding agricultural subsidies, transitional periods, and budgetary and financial issues. Representatives of the Visegrad Group countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, met on Friday and Saturday to overcome a tension caused by the Poles last week who said they would prefer cash payments from EU budget in the first three years after entry to direct support for farming.

Opponents of Temelin threaten with permanent border blockade

Austrian opponents of the Czech Temelin nuclear power station have threatened to stage a "permanent" blockade of the Czech-Austrian border crossing at Wullowitz/Dolni Dvoriste. The blockade is to start on Wednesday, December 11. Their goal is to achieve a re-opening of the energy chapter prior to the EU summit in Copenhagen. They say if they fail to receive a permit for the permanent blockade of the border crossing from the authorities, they intended to go on a hunger strike.

Temelin, situated in south Bohemia, some 60km from the Austrian border, was put on-line in October 2000. It has been sharply criticised by both politicians and anti-nuclear activists in Austria and Germany who claim that it is unsafe due to its combination of Soviet and Western technology.

Sports briefs

Czech cross-country skier Lukas Bauer ended fifth in a 15-kilometre free style race at the World Championships in Davos, Switzerland. Overall, Bauer is third after four races.

In football, Sparta Prague has sold two of its players, Radek Sirl and Martin Horak to Zenit St. Petersburg. The price of the transfer will be announced later next week.

Czech weather forecast

We are expecting a mostly cloudy day with occasional snow showers, the highest daytime temperatures should range from three degrees Celsius below zero to one above.