Thousands of Czechs protested in Prague against Andrej Babiš on Tuesday, a day before his second appointment as prime minister and his second attempt at forming a government. Similar rallies were also held in no less than 200 Czech towns and villages. Babiš and his ANO party won a parliamentary election in October but his minority government lost a confidence vote in January and had to resign. President Miloš Zeman is due to appoint Babiš prime minister again on Wednesday after Babiš reached an agreement on a coalition with the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). The agreement is now subject to a referendum among ČSSD members. It will thus have a key role, albeit informally, in forming the government for the first time since the 1989 Velvet Revolution led by Vaclav Havel that peacefully swept away communism in then Czechoslovakia. The protesters are condemning Babis’ plan and have called for his resignation. They also waved portraits of the estimated 4,500 victims of the former totalitarian regime before 1989. His position is also complicated by reports he collaborated with the former communist-era secret police. Author: red
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš will be appointed government head again on June 6, he said on Thursday. The statement followed his meeting with President Zeman, Reuters reports. The ANO party won the most votes but feel short of a majority. It has so far failed to find majority support because most parties refuse to join a cabinet led by Babiš, who faces criminal charges of abusing EU subsidies a decade ago. ANO has struck a preliminary deal to form a new government coalition with the center-left Social Democrats, but that still requires approval by Social Democrat party members in a referendum running until June 14. Babiš said he and Zeman discussed various options and names, and he did not want to comment on this because it is still not clear. He said they will certainly wait for the outcome of the referendum of CSSD. Babiš said he presumed that after being appointed, he would be given a deadline to a form a new cabinet. He said his government might ask the Chamber of Deputies for confidence in the week after July 10. Author: red
The Czech government has approved some changes to the rules for exchanging money, and these will benefit the public. Most importantly, people will have a chance to get their money back if they discover the deal was unfavorable. The amendment to the Foreign Exchange Act still needs to pass both houses of Parliament and be signed by the president. If it passes, it will take effect three months after its publication. The poor state of regulation of exchange places has been an ongoing issue that gives Prague a bad reputation. This issue has been brought to light recently in a widely watched series of videos by Janek Rubeš, who posts on YouTube under the name the Honest Guide. He has been calling for the government to take action, and for people to be more aware of the pitfalls. Read the full article here (Prague.tv)
The Czech Republic’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Jaroslava Němcová, stated that the ministry is planning to significantly accelerate the employment of Ukrainians through a special program. According to Němcová, the number of job vacancies in the Czech Republic has reached a record high at over 260,000. The jobs on this list include positions for nurses, social workers, technical workers and construction workers. The Minister visited the Czech Embassy in Ukraine and the Consulate General in Lviv in order to simplify and accelerate the procedure to obtain a work permit for Ukrainians. The plan is to increase the number of workers from Ukraine with the right to two years of employment. The goal is to employ 19,600 people using this route. “Now 374,000 foreigners are working in the Czech Republic, and 280,000 of them are EU citizens, and 94,000 are citizens from other European countries and Asia,” the news outlet reports. “70,000 of these people are Ukrainians.” Author: red
The Czech government said Monday it had reached a deal with ride-hailing service Uber that will see its drivers licensed like taxi drivers and data provided for tax purposes. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said that the San-Francisco based company had agreed to “share its data with the finance ministry” to improve tax collection. “Uber has been in the Czech Republic since 2014 and its operations have essentially been illegal up to now,” Babiš added. Czech taxi drivers have organized a string of protests over the last few months against what they argue is unfair competition from unlicensed Uber drivers. According to Uber, it works with some 2,000 Czech drivers and around 400,000 passengers have downloaded its app in the Czech Republic, an EU country of 10.5 million people. As Uber doesn’t directly employ drivers, who are considered independent contractors, they pay less in taxes. Author: red
Czech economic sentiment strengthened in April to the highest level in nearly ten years, survey data from the Czech Statistical Office showed Tuesday. The economic sentiment indicator rose to 15.8 in April from 15.3 in the previous month. Moreover, this was the highest score since May 2008, when it marked the same 15.8. At the same time, the consumer confidence index weakened to 10.0 in April from 10.3 in March. The survey revealed that consumers were slightly more afraid of a decrease in the overall economic situation over the next twelve months, while worries about their financial standing almost unchanged compared to March. The business confidence index improved to 17.2 in April from 16.5 in the preceding month. Author: red
U.S. President Donald Trump said different cities are under consideration for his planned meeting in “early June or before” with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un. Bloomberg included Prague in a list of nine possible locations, including Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Geneva, Warsaw, Ulaanbaatar, Bankok, and Singapore. Kim Pyong Il, Kim Jong Un’s uncle, is North Korea’s ambassador to the Czech Republic. US President Donald Trump expects to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the coming weeks – but ties conditions to the encounter: everything is done to make the meeting a “global success” said Trump. The Czech president’s office refused to comment on the speculation. “I will not comment on it in any way,” said Zemans spokesman Jiri Ovcacek. The general rule is that Prague is an “immensely beautiful and hospitable city,” the spokesman said. Author: red
The Finance Ministry (MF) has proposed merging the fee for accommodation with the recreational and spa fees into one paid by all short-term housing providers. The proposal still has a long way to go before it gets final approval. What is new is that it affects everyone who offers a short stay, regardless of the place of accommodation or its purpose. This merged fee would affect both standard hotels and occasional landlords such as those who use the Airbnb platform or similar online services. The current rules for accommodation fees were created before services like Airbnb existed, and do not specifically take them into account. Read the full article here (Prague.tv)
The prices of apartments in Prague – compared to last year – increased by 10.4% to 2,100 euros per square metre. Prague remains the most expensive city in the country: 2,750 euros per square metre. The cheapest regional capital is Ústí nad Labem, where the cost per square metre is less than 550 euros. A total of 27,000 apartments were sold in the Czech Republic in 2017. Analysts say the growth in real estate prices will slow down, but the trend will not reverse. Only an unexpected economic or political crisis could force a drop in apartment prices, according to analysts. Compared to the average for 2014, the average offer price has already risen by 35.5 percent. Prices have grown in most Prague districts, with the highest increase of 4.5 percent in Prague 6. A reason for the rise in real estate prices is the population growth in Prague. According to the demographic projections, the population of Prague is projected to grow by an additional 93,000 people by 2030 and 82,400 new apartments will be required. To meet this demand it was necessary to complete the construction of 5,500 apartments last year. Author: red
In order to prevent Prague from spreading across an ever-widening area, developers want to build new high-rise buildings of flats and offices. The most suitable locations are Pankrác, Holešovice and Vysočany, they claim. The higher concentration of people would result in lower costs to the city for transport and maintenance. But not all residents favor Prague getting filled up with modern towers. Conservationists, in particular, oppose the concept, as it would affect the historical skyline. Developers, though, see it as the way forward. The Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) also counts on more high-rise buildings on the Pankrác plain and in Vysočany. Read the full article here (Prague.tv)
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