Daily news summary

Czech president to name Andrej Babiš prime minister December 6: report

Czech president Miloš Zeman should name ANO leader Andrej Babiš prime minister on December 6, public broadcaster Czech Television reported on Thursday. The cabinet should be appointed on December 15, the broadcaster added.

Babiš has been trying to win support for a minority ANO party with little support so far. The communists said they could tolerate such a government. Otherwise ANO, with 78 seats in the lower house of parliament out of 200, would appear to fall way short of the majority needed to win a vote of confidence and form a stable government.

ANO leader says regional governors will have to make choice over positions

ANO leader Andrej Babiš has said that he expected party members elected to parliament who are also regional governors to choose between one or other of the functions. Babiš said he would give them some time to make the decision.

The choice could affect three or four ANO members of parliament. Karlovary Vary regional governor Jana Vildumetzová has said thought that she would like to do both jobs, remaining as governor without pay. The governor of the Central Bohemia region, Jaroslava Jermanová, and Olomouc region, Ladislav Okleštěk, face the choice.

The Moravia-Silesia region governor says he has reached an agreement that he perform both functions.

Flagship Brno motor sport event makes slim profit

The Czech Republic’s main motor sport event, the motorcycle Grand Prix at Brno, made a slim profit of 4 million crowns this year. The figure was revealed Thursday by Brno mayor Petr Votřál. The event, part of the world championships and this year staged between August 4 and 6, is sponsored by city, regional, and state funds to the tune of 100 million crowns. Around 194,000 spectators attended the event this year.

Czech president to open Prague Castle exhibition in Moscow

Czech President Miloš Zeman is set to open an exhibition presenting Prague Castle treasures in the history museum in Moscow’s Red Square on Thursday, the fourth day of his official visit to Russia. In the afternoon Mr Zeman will travel to Yekaterinburg to attend another Russian-Czech business forum.

On Wednesday, the Czech head of state awarded four Russian personalities at a reception he and his wife Ivana held at the Czech embassy in Moscow as a way to thank Russian war veterans who took part in the liberation of Czechoslovakia from the Nazi occupation. He also met with the last Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Czechs drop to 48th in FIFA rankings

The Czech Republic’s football team has slipped down the FIFA rankings. The top men’s team dropped two places to stand at 48th.

The team failed to qualify for the World Cup being hosted by Russia next year. The team won two friendlies during a mini-tournament in Qatar, beating Iceland as well the hosts.

The FIFA rankings are topped by Germany, Brazil, and Portugal.

Czech Dukovany unscheduled reactor outage ends

Electricity producer ČEZ said Thursday that the unscheduled shutdown of its Dukovany-4 nuclear reactor had ended early in the morning.

The 510 MW capacity reactor should be at full power during the evening of November 23. That would mean all four Dukovany reactor and two Temelín reactors would be operating normally.

The unscheduled outage began November 8 following a leakage of non-radioactive water outside the core reactor area.

The same day as the unscheduled outage started, CEZ had announced it expected output from its two nuclear plants, Dukovany and Temelín, to rise to 8.0 TWh in the last quarter.

Illegal warehouse with 2.6 tonnes of meat found in Prague

Veterinary inspectors have discovered an illegal warehouse with 2.6 tonnes of meat, the deputy spokesman of the Czech Veterinary Authority, Petr Majer, told the Czech News Agency on Thursday.

The warehouse stored frozen fish from Vietnam, fish cans from Korea and frozen beef from Austria, which were sold to various restaurants in Prague. The veterinary office issued a ban on the sale of the foodstuffs and the warehouse operator is facing a fine of up to one million crowns.

Weather

The weather Friday will mostly be overcast with sunny intervals in the north of the country. Fog could occur in the Olomouc region. Top temperatures will range between seven and 14 degrees Celsius.