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The Czech Republic’s biggest manufacturing exporter, Škoda Auto, fell short of the million car sales mark in 2013. The car maker announced sales of 920,800 for the year, down by 18,400 on its figure for 2012. Western Europe still represents its biggest single market with around four out of every 10 cars sold. The remainder of sales are broadly divided between central and eastern Europe on one hand and China on the other.

Jan Mládek, the proposed minister for industry and trade and ostensible object of president Zeman’s suggestions that one cabinet candidate could be a security risk after failing to obtain clearance from the National Security Authority (NBÚ), has also defended himself. Mládek said his last clearance process was stopped when he started working in the private sector and it was no longer required. Mládek has previously been a minister of agriculture and deputy minister of finance. Fellow Social Democrat nominee Milan Chovanec said he did not use the law degree he earned under a controversial fast track process from the scandal hit Plzeň Law Faculty.

Czech speed skater Karolína Erbanová took second place in the European championship 500 meters combined event in Hamar, Norway, on Saturday. The Czech appeared on track for her fifth gold medal in the event before a fall just ahead of the finishing line. That error meant she finished just three hundredths of a second behind first place Dutch rival, Ireen Wust.

Christian Democrat and Civic Democrat candidates will go head to head in Zlín and Uherské Hradištĕ next week to fill the senate seat vacated by Tomio Okamura. The two candidates gained the most votes after polling closed on Saturday without anyone obtaining more than half the votes cast. The Christian Democrat won 23.36% of votes with his ODS rival on 16.52%. Okamura was elected to the lower house of parliament in elections last October.

Social Democrat ministerial nominees have hit back at president Miloš Zeman’s attacks on their suitability for office. Jiří Dienstbier, earmarked to be the minister for human rights, said that the head of state was totally off track when he suggested that he would not be able to fulfill his functions because he had been selected to head the party’s campaign for upcoming European Parliament elections and would be campaigning from February onwards. The party is seeking someone else to head the campaign after he was offered the Cabinet post, Dienstbier said.

The head of state announced Friday that he would name Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka prime minister on January 17 but that the Cabinet’s formation was not likely till the end of the month. Zeman suggested Sobotka cast around for other ministerial candidates and warned that he was not obliged to automatically accept nominations for ministers.

Top Czech tennis singles hopes for the upcoming Australian Open have been given relatively easy opening draws. Men’s singles seventh seed, Tomáš Berdych, has been drawn in the first round against Kazakh Aleksandr Nedovyesov, who is ranked 92 in the world. Petra Kvitová, seeded six, will play Thai Luksika Kumkhum, ranked 87, in the women’s singles. Czech Klara Zakopalová has the chance of a famous scalp in her first round match against local favourite Samantha Stosur, seeded 17. The first Grand Slam event of the year starts on January 13.

Czech constitutional law expert Jan Kysela has rounded on what he describes as head of state Miloš Zeman’s expansive and interventionist interpretation of his role. Kysela added that political parties should stand up to the president and put him back in the place allotted to him in the latest battle over Cabinet nominations. Kysela said a series of acts and statements by president Zeman suggest he is out of step with the role intended for the head of state under the constitution. Social Democrat deputy chairman and foreign ministry nominee, Lubomír Zaorálek, has warned Zeman will create a quasi presidential system if he wins the latest battle.

Doctors who removed a 36-kilogramme malignant tumour from the stomach of a 47-year-old woman said the patient was recovering well and could be released from hospital within a week. During the seven-hour operation performed in December doctors had to deal with severe bleeding, repeatedly giving the patient blood transfusions. Doctors say they will publish a report on the case which is unique in this country and as far as they know abroad as well. The chief surgeon said he could not understand why the woman had not sought treatment earlier or why the family had not responded adequately to her problem since the weight of the tumour confined her to bed and she was unable to live a normal life.

The Social Democrat leader called a meeting of the party’ s leadership on Friday for a debate on the present political situation. The meeting focused on the president’s objections to a number of ministerial nominees with which the prime minister is acquainted. Lubomir Zaoralek, who is nominated to the post of foreign minister in the nascent government, said the president’s stated reservation were petty and none of them justified making changes to the government line-up.

The president cited objections to several ministerial nominees, such as not being properly qualified for the job or getting a suspect fast-track law degree at the Pilsen faculty of law within just nine months, which refers to the nominee for interior minister Milan Chovanec. Mr. Zeman said he hoped the prime minister in waiting would address his objections.