Czech presidential candidate Danuse Nerudova, who was sitting on top of the opinion polls last month, now appears to be trailing the two other favourites – retired army general Petr Pavel and opposition leader Andrej Babis – as the campaign enters the final stretch. The race between the three is still very close but the economist has now dropped to third place, according to the latest poll by the Median agency, ahead of the first round of voting on January 13. Both Nerudova and Pavel have been endorsed by the centre-right government as among its preferred candidates. She is the only woman among the nine candidates and would be the country’s first female president if elected, and she has therefore drawn comparisons with the liberal president of neighbouring Slovakia, Zuzana Caputova. The Czech presidency is a largely ceremonial post but the president has input into foreign policy and makes key appointments such as the central bank governor. Last month the former Mendel University rector was hit by media reports of plagiarism at the university during her tenure. Nerudova has also been criticised for avoiding media questions on the plagiarism affair, which involved international students at the university. Instead, Nerudova published what Czech Radio commentator and online outlet A2larm editor Apolena Rychlikova described as...
Heavily dependent on the automotive sector, cheap energy and Germany, the Czech economy will experience one of the biggest slowdowns in 2023. Officially, the decision had only been postponed, but it would have come at the right time to brighten up the Czech economic outlook, which is very gloomy for the months to come. On Friday, December 9, the Volkswagen Group announced that due to economic uncertainties, it would not immediately choose the location of its next electric battery gigafactory, planned for Eastern Europe. The Czech government had been campaigning for months to have the site in Plzen, over its Hungarian, Slovakian and Polish competitors. “If there’s the option of building a battery factory in Europe, where electricity costs €0.15 per kilowatt hour, but it’s possible to get it in China or America for €0.02 or €0.03, we are not in a position to say that we will make this choice out of solidarity,” said Thomas Schäfer, the group’s boss, immediately after the announcement. For the Czech Republic, the stakes are colossal: “This gigafactory is decisive for the future of our automotive industry and, above all, for its ability to make the shift to electric,” said Jiri Dvorak, a specialist...
Lucie Fukova will coordinate the activities of ministries working to improve the lot of the country’s Roma minority. She also wants to improve the way Romani people are seen in Czech society. The Czech government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala last month created the post of government commissioner for Roma community affairs — an important step in addressing the complex situation of the country’s Roma community. It appointed 41-year-old Romni Lucie Fukova to the post. “The government takes the matter of the integration of national minorities very seriously,” Czech government spokesman Vaclav Smolka told DW. “Because integration measures are very disjointed, the government decided to create the post of government commissioner in this area primarily to act as a coordinator between the ministries.” Fukova hopes that her work will ensure that the money that the Czech Republic and the European Union spend on improving the situation of the Roma community will go where it is needed most. Roma and Sinti communities are Europe’s largest, and most disadvantaged, minority, and Roma are estimated to make up about 2.5% of the population of the Czech Republic. “Simply put, [I want] to find a way to help that will be based on the real needs of Romani people,”...
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the Czech Republic and Prime Minister Petr Fiala for supporting Ukraine on its path to membership in the European Union during the presidency of the Council of the EU. “Grateful to friendly Czechia and Prime Minister Petr Fiala for supporting Ukraine on the way to EU membership during the presidency of the Council of the EU,” Zelensky wrote on his Twitter account. The President added that Ukrainians appreciate the preservation of EU unity and unchanging solidarity with Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression. “Together we will win!” Zelensky wrote. The Czech Republic handed over the presidency of the EU Council to Sweden on January 1. Zelensky recounts a year that ‘struck our hearts’ in his final address of 2022 President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a rousing New Year’s Eve address on Saturday night, recalling a year that he said truly “began on Feb. 24” with fear over Russia’s invasion but ended with his country hopeful for victory. “We have overcome the panic,” he said. “We did not run away but united. We have overcome doubts, despair and fear.” “This year has struck our hearts,” he said, according to a translated transcript posted on his...
From Jan. 1, Sweden assumes Presidency of the EU, replacing the government of the Czech Republic. On the last day of 2022, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, thanked the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic for the fruitful presidency of the EU over the previous six months “Dear Petr Fiala, congratulations on your successful Czech Presidency of the EU in 2022. Your leadership was instrumental in maintaining our EU unity and ambition on crucial files. From supporting Ukraine to addressing the energy crisis and in delivering on our EU Green Deal. Děkujeme mnohokrát,” Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter. The Swedish Presidency of the EU completes the “EU trio presidency program,” which was opened by France in early 2022 and continued by the Czech Republic. It was these two countries that faced the vital tasks and challenges associated with Russian aggression against Ukraine and its consequences, including the energy and food crisis, and the need to strengthen European security. Political, economic, financial, humanitarian and military support to Ukraine will also remain among the main priorities of the Swedish Presidency of the EU.
Czechia is heading to the polls to elect a new president in January to replace the controversial Miloš Zeman after a ten-year tenure in office. While it is unlikely that any candidate will win the majority of the votes in the first round, three have emerged as leading contenders to enter a run-off. The ANO party, which sits with the liberal and centrist Renew Europe Group in the EU Parliament, supports former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, currently polling at around 27%. The centre-right and national-conservative SPOLU alliance of ODS (ECR Group in the EU Parliament), KDU-ČSL and TOP 09 (EPP Group) endorsed three candidates; Petr Pavel, a non-partisan and former military general, polling at around 25%, and Danuše Nerudová, a non-partisan and economics professor, polling at around the same level. Currently rising in the polls, she would be the first woman to hold the position. The last of the three candidates endorsed by SPOLU, Fischer, has little chance of making it into the second round as per current polling (5-6%). Fischer is a former diplomat and senator. He won 10.2% in the first round of the 2018 Presidential election. Marek Hilšer, head of his own centrist Marek Hilšer do Senátu...
“The Fourth Reich will be created, encompassing the territory of Germany and its satellites, i.e., Poland, the Baltic states, Czechia, Slovakia, the Kyiv Republic, and other outcasts,” said Dmitry Medvedev, former president of Russia and a staunch supporter of the war in Ukraine. This was the fourth of a list of 10 predictions Medvedev made for 2023, which he shared on Twitter. Medvedev’s economic predictions Several of his other predictions related to economic and financial concerns, including that “Oil price[s] will rise to $150 a barrel, and gas price will top $5.000 per 1.000 cubic meters.” He also claimed that “all the largest stock markets and financial activity will leave the US and Europe and move to Asia.” He further stated, “The Bretton Woods system of monetary management will collapse, leading to the IMF and World Bank crash. Euro and Dollar will stop circulating as the global reserve currencies. Digital fiat currencies will be actively used instead.” Medvedev’s predictions for Europe When it comes to European relations, Medvedev claimed that the UK will rejoin the European Union, leading to its downfall. “The EU will collapse after the UK’s return,” he said. “Euro will drop out of use as the former EU currency.” He...
Czechia may produce much of its own food, but that has not stopped the country from seeing a dramatic increase in food prices. On top of the usual suspects such as rising energy prices, part of the problem for Czechs is that a substantial amount of domestically produced food is exported abroad. Food prices rose by more than a quarter in the Czech Republic in October. This was not only due to soaring energy prices but also partly because Czech stores copy prices in Germany, which has also seen an explosive growth in food prices this year. The data shows just how bad food inflation in Czechia has become. The country experienced the largest percentage rise in sugar prices in Europe; the second-largest in vegetable oils; and the third-largest price increase in butter, milk, and bread. Part of the problem is that Czech producers continued to export many of these commodities abroad, creating a shortage at home and keeping prices high. The situation the country finds itself in reveals some of the downsides of free trade and globalization, in which companies and producers can often profit more by selling key products abroad rather than selling domestically. The increase in the price of sugar...
The Czech National Bank (CNB) has received strong incoming impulses after inflation in the country surged to 16.2% in November after slowing down to 15.1% in October 2022. Prices were also seen to be rising month-on-month as inflation peaked up by 1.17% after falling by 1.44% in October. Food and housing costs made the most contribution to inflation. Inflation may reach 16.9% in 2022. Interestingly, inflation was projected to be 19.8% in 2022 without pricing in the effect of the energy savings tariff introduced by the government this year. However, even with this tariff and other measures to lessen the contribution of high energy prices, it seems that prices are accelerating no matter what measures are taken. Inflation is not going to stop as large companies have already announced heavy price increases for next year. Utility rates, especially on heating, are expected to be raised dramatically by double digits next year, commented Martin Marsovsky, chief manager of Finmex Academy. The second impulse came from the Federal Reserve (Fed) of the United States that raised its interest rates to 4.5% from 4.0%, slowing down its highly aggressive rate hike trajectory. The Fed has already raised its interest rates by 75 basis points...
The salaries of senior Czech politicians will increase by approximately 12.7% from January, according to a decision by the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry that has been published in the Law Digest. These salaries have been frozen for three years; the salaries remained unchanged in 2021, and in early 2022, a planned rise of about 6% was cancelled as part of cuts in government spending at a time of high inflation and an energy crisis. The monthly gross salary of a member of parliament, either deputy or senator, will go up by CZK 11,600 to CZK 102,400. The president will receive a salary of CZK 341,200 per month, an increase of CZK 38,500. The prime minister and the heads of both houses of parliament will earn CZK 274,800 a month each (up CZK 31,000). The deputy heads of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will have a monthly salary of CZK 195,300 (up CZK 22,100). A deputy prime minister will get CZK 236,000 per month (up CZK 26,600), MPs who chair parliamentary committees, commissions or delegations will get CZK 144,100 (up CZK 16,300), and deputy chairs will get CZK 123,200 (up CZK 13,900). The financial compensation that politicians receive...
The Czech EU Council Presidency would like energy ministers from across the Union to agree to cap gas at €188 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in Brussels on Monday. Negotiations over a maximum price to cap the sale of gas to help households with skyrocketing energy bills have long been on the table, and following a recent back-and-forth, 15 EU states now want to set the market correction mechanism at €160 per MWh. But Germany “wants a price gap that would be unworkable,” said a senior EU diplomat so to reach a compromise, the Czech EU presidency is aiming for a cap at around €188 per MWh. To adopt an EU gas price cap, qualified majority voting is possible, though consensus is preferred. Also under discussion are the gas price cap’s activation and deactivation conditions. In its latest proposal, the Czech EU presidency also strengthens rules for the mechanism’s automatic termination, which would be triggered if gas consumption rises, an emergency situation in an EU country or a massive interruption of LNG imports to Europe. “Everybody knows that we need an emergency brake,” an EU senior diplomat said. Together with the market correction mechanism, cross-border solidarity principles and a faster-permitting process for renewable energy...
The US Senate has approved the nomination of investor Bijan Sabet for the post of US ambassador to the Czech Republic. Sabet said his priorities would be to follow Václav Havel’s legacy of protecting human rights and media freedoms and to develop US-Czech security cooperation, including supporting negotiations on the Czech purchase of US F-35 fighter jets. The last American Ambassador in Prague was Stephen King, at the end of 2020 he announced that he would relinquish this position when the new President Biden takes office. Since then, the post of US Ambassador to Prague has been vacant. King was the ninth U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic. He took over the office in December 2017 from lawyer Andrew Schapiro, with whom President Miloš Zeman did not have a good relationship. “We are pleased that President Biden has announced his intention to appoint Bijan Sabet as Ambassador to the Czech Republic. This demonstrates the strong friendship between the United States and the Czech Republic. The nomination must now be approved by the United States Senate,” said the US Embassy in Prague on Twitter. Sabet, 53, is co-founder and partner of Spark Capital since 2005, which deals with venture capital. He...
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