Politics & Economics

Sales Prices of Older Flats in the Czech Republic Rose by 22.5% to CZK 80,367 sqm

Sales prices of older flats in the Czech Republic at the end of the first quarter rose by an average of 22.5 percent year on year to CZK 80,367 per sqm. The most expensive was Prague (CZK 104,103 per sqm), the cheapest was the Ústí nad Labem region (CZK 25,819 per sqm), according to the company Bezrealitky. “Even a year with coronavirus did not stop the growth of prices of older housing. Records and major milestones fell across the country. Older apartment in Prague is selling for more than CZK 100,000 per sqm. This is the price at which it was possible to buy apartments in mid-2018. For the first time, prices in Brno exceeded CZK 70,000 per sqm, “said Hendrik Meyer, director of Bezrealitky. After Prague, the most expensive flats were in the South Moravian Region (CZK 70,923 per sqm) and the Central Bohemian Region (CZK 58,705 per sqm). The cheapest Ústí nad Labem region was followed by the Moravian-Silesian region (CZK 33,145 per sqm) and Vysočina (CZK 34,036 sqm). Year-on-year, prices rose the most in the Liberec Region, by 57.1 percent. In the Ústí nad Labem Region they increased by 42.8 percent, in the Hradec Králové Region they...

by Prague Morning May 28, 2021

Czech Republic Suspends Flights with Belarus

The State Security Council has decided to suspend the operation of Belarusian airline Belavia in the Czech Republic. The last flight will be checked in on Wednesday, May 26. Minister of Transport Karel Havlíček (ANO) announced it on Wednesday following the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk to arrest the journalist Raman Pratasevich, a key foe of authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. In a video posted online, the detained blogger, Roman Protasevich, 26, said he was in good health, being held in a pretrial detention facility in Minsk, and acknowledged having played a role in organising mass disturbances in the capital last year. The European Union agreed Monday to impose sanctions on Belarus, including banning its airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc. “Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko must pay a bitter price for forcing a commercial flight to land in Belarus in order to detain a dissident journalist on board,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Tuesday. “What Lukashenko did could hardly be more perfidious. More than 170 passengers’ lives were endangered to detain a journalist,” Maas said at a news conference with his Czech counterpart Jakub Kulhánek (ČSSD). “We won’t tolerate that one...

by Prague Morning May 26, 2021

HN: In 1989 Václav Klaus Made Large Loan to Russia

In 1989, Czechoslovakia secretly lent $ 1.3 billion to the Soviet Union, the newspaper Hospodářské noviny reported on Tuesday. The newspaper refers to documents from the National Archives, found in collaboration with the Aktualne.cz, the weekly Respekt and the anti-corruption organization Observation Post. The loan was arranged by the Czechoslovak Ministry of Finance, headed at the time by Václav Klaus. The money was lent on the basis of an agreement reached by the Czechoslovakian Communist government of Ladislav Adamec. It became part of a multi-billion dollar Russian debt, only part of which was ever repaid. According to Hospodarske Noviny, the idea of the loan was Zdeněk Rachač, an official of the Ministry of Finance. Klaus became Minister of Finance after the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Communist regime when the Adamec government was replaced by the one led by Marian Calfa. Klaus told Hospodářské noviny he was unaware of any such covert loan. However, there is a letter from December 1989 in which Klaus was warned against sending the loan to Russia by the then director of the Czechoslovak Commercial Bank (ČSOB). Under the government of Prime Minister and current president Milos Zeman, Falkon Capital bought about two-thirds...

by Prague Morning May 25, 2021

BREAKING: Czech Health Minister Petr Arenberger Resigns

Minister of Health Petr Arenberger announced on Tuesday morning that he is stepping down.

by Prague Morning May 25, 2021

Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic Want North Macedonia in EU

The foreign ministers of Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia voiced unanimous support on Saturday for North Macedonia and Albania to start EU membership talks, arguing that bilateral issues should not block the EU’s enlargement into the Western Balkans. Bulgaria on May 21 said it did not plan to lift its veto on long-delayed accession talks between North Macedonia and the EU over a language and history dispute with its neighbor Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, wants Skopje to acknowledge that both its identity and language have Bulgarian roots. Skopje has long insisted Macedonian is a distinct South Slavic language that forms part of the country’s culture and national identity, while Sofia says Macedonian is a regional dialect of Bulgarian. Unanimity is required from all EU member for the adoption of the negotiating framework. The Czech Republic’s Kulhánek said it is “not fair” for one EU member nation to condition the enlargement process on a bilateral dispute. “This is a crucial time, and we cannot allow [the process] to be stuck with such demands,” he said. On Friday, Zoran Zaev, North Macedonia’s prime minister, said the two EU officials (Olivér Várhelyi, commissioner for enlargement, and Augusto Santos Silva,...

by Prague Morning May 24, 2021

Czech Health Minister Under Fire for Dissolving Pandemic Expert Group

Czech Health Minister Petr Arenberger is taking heat for dismissing an interdisciplinary group of experts who had been advising him on the coronavirus crisis. Arenberger — the country’s fourth health minister since the start of the pandemic — dismissed the group on Tuesday without warning or explanation. Deputy Health Minister Martina Vašáková later told journalists that he made the decision because the public health situation is improving, and said the ministry would deal with the pandemic without outside experts from now on. But the move immediately prompted a backlash, with many pointing out it came a day after the group’s head, Petr Smejkal, had blasted the government for mismanaging the crisis. Smejkal, the chief epidemiologist at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, told Czech Television on Wednesday that he believed the October general elections probably played a role in the panel getting the boot. “We are probably uncomfortable to [the government],” he said. “We’ve done all the necessary work, and since there’s probably nothing serious ahead of us now, why should they continue to have us?” Roman Prymula, one of Arenberger’s predecessors, told Czech Television the move was “a mistake” given that the upcoming summer holidays and increased travel meant...

by Prague Morning May 22, 2021

Czechs Rally Against Justice Minister Over Explosion Probe

Thousands of people rallied against the Czech Republic’s justice minister Thursday, accusing her of undermining the independence of the country’s legal system and spreading misinformation about the investigation of a huge ammunition depot explosion allegedly caused by Russian spies. The protesters in Prague called on Czech Justice Minister Marie Benesova to resign and said if she does not, they will hold more rallies across the country next week and march through the capital on June 1. Benesova was the only member of the current coalition government who backed President Milos Zeman after he said that the 2014 blast could have been caused by human error or some other cause. The demonstrators repeatedly accused Zeman of treason. Zeman claimed there was no conclusive evidence about the Russian involvement in the ammunition explosion. His words were widely repeated by Russian media and authorities. All other government ministers, including Prime Minister Andrej Babis, as well as lawmakers and officials briefed on the investigation, said that´s not true. Banesova, a close ally of the president, strongly criticized the country´s prosecutor general, Pavel Zeman, for his public comments on the blast investigation. The prosecutor general resigned from his post last week, citing pressure from the...

by Prague Morning May 20, 2021

“He’s a Mobster.” European Deputies Attack PM Babiš Over His Conflict of Interest

On Wednesday, MEPs debated with Council and Commission about the findings on the breach of conflict of interest rules involving Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. European deputies have harshly criticized Mr. Babiš for failing to resolve his conflict of interest while the recent European audit concluded that the Czech prime minister is in a situation of conflict of interest because he “still controls Agrofert”. Thirty legislators joined the debate, and no one, except for two members of Babiš’s ANO movement, spoke in support of him. The discussion thus showed that Babiš has no allies in the EU Parliament. In the debate, MEPs commented on the recent conclusions of the Commission’s 2014-2020 audit into a case of conflict of interest in which Andrej Babiš has been implicated, saying that the extent to which oligarchic structures have developed in Czechia is “inacceptable”, and that the funds in question have to be retrieved. Others said that this issue should not be used as an excuse to enhance EU competencies, and some underlined that the recommendations of the audit are being implemented now. Whereas the Portuguese Minister Augusto Santos Silva, President-in-Office of the Council, said the Council could not formulate any view on such specific cases,...

by Prague Morning May 20, 2021

Czech Government Approves National Recovery Plan

The Czech government also approved a National Recovery Plan draft worth nearly CZK 200 billion (EUR 7.8 billion) at its meeting on 17 May. Therefore, it was agreed that the funds from the National Recovery Plan will be used in the form of various investments which will modernize the Czech economy. The plan is ready to be submitted to the European Commission for approval. However, the final version has faced criticism from the Chamber of Commerce, which said the plan suggests insufficient funding for digitalization that would simplify red tape for business. NGO Hnutí DUHA (Friends of the Earth Czech Republic) said the government “greenwashed” the plan at the last minute. Czech regional leaders are also among the plan’s critics, Hospodářské noviny has reported. Leaders representing the Pardubický region said that the plan “is addressing only central needs” and not regional ones. “We are convinced that such an approach is in breach with requirements of the European Commission,” the region wrote in a statement. According to the government’s aforementioned press release, the country will invest in greener modes of transport, healthcare, high-speed internet networks, and the construction of new pre-school care facilities, among others. The National Recovery Plan has also been made public so...

by Prague Morning May 19, 2021

Zeman Apologizes for NATO’s 1999 Bombardments of Yugoslavia

The Czech Republic’s President Milos Zeman on Tuesday apologized for NATO’s bombardments of Yugoslavia in 1999. He made a statement to this effect during negotiations with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic, who is in the Czech Republic on a visit, the Czech leader’s spokesman Jiří Ovčáček tweeted on Tuesday. “President Milos Zeman presented public apologies to President Aleksandar Vucic for the [NATO] bombardments of Yugoslavia in 1999,” Ovcacek said. He stressed that Zeman “personally asked the Serbian people for forgiveness.” The Czech Republic joined NATO on March 12, 1999. The alliance’s bombardments followed on March 24 to continue till June 10, 1999. Zeman, the then Czech prime minister, strongly protested against NATO’s actions and stressed the historical and cultural proximity of the people of the Czech Republic and Yugoslavia. The Czech authorities then denied permission to NATO planes participating in the operation to land in the country’s territory. After the talks with Vucic on Tuesday Zeman told the media: “We were hopelessly looking for at least one more [NATO] country that would join us and come out against [the bombardments of Yugoslavia]. We remained all alone.” Nevertheless, he is certain that his country should have pressed for an end to...

by Prague Morning May 18, 2021

Will the Czech Pirates Sink the Czech Government?

According to the most recent polls, the Czech Pirate Party has gained in voter preferences a few months before parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic. If elections were to be held now, a coalition between the Pirates and the party of The Mayors and Independents (STAN) would be in pole position with 27 percent, a centre-right electoral alliance called SPOLU would gain 21.5 percent, and the party of current prime minister Andrej Babiš would be relegated to third place with 21 percent. The surprising shift in voter preferences has prompted the Pirates to start collecting signatures in Parliament in order to schedule a vote of confidence against the current government, and if successful, they planned to call for early parliamentary elections as soon as July. The move was mostly a demonstration of strength and a provocation that will play well with their young urban electorate. However, apart from embarrassing the prime minister, the motion has little practical effect, as elections are scheduled for Oct. 8 regardless. For a vote of confidence, they needed the signature of 50 currently serving MPs, and although a united opposition could easily produce this amount of signatures, the fact is that the Pirates being on the far left...

by Prague Morning May 16, 2021

Russia Officially Lists Czech Republic as ‘Unfriendly State’

Russia on Friday formally designated the United States and the Czech Republic as “unfriendly states” amid the biggest crisis in ties between Moscow and Washington in years. The Russian government released a decree signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin that was accompanied by a list of countries that “have carried out unfriendly actions” against Russia, Russian nationals or Russian entities. The list now includes the US and the Czech Republic. The US diplomatic missions could no longer employ local staff while Czech missions could employ a maximum of 19. The Czech embassy will be allowed to employ no more than 19 Russian nationals and the US embassy none at all, Moscow said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Moscow remained ready for dialogue, state news agency TASS reported, stressing the fact that Russia had now only two nations on its “unfriendly states” list. In recent months tensions have spiralled between Russia and the West over a litany of issues, including Russia’s troop build-up on Ukraine’s border, interference in US elections and other perceived hostile activities. Russia-US relations have rapidly deteriorated after Joe Biden increased pressure on the Kremlin since becoming US president in January. Washington in April announced...

by Prague Morning May 15, 2021

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