Archive: Domestic affairs | Politics

President Miloš Zeman is due to remain in office until early 2023. But that hasn’t stopped names of possible successors already appearing in the media. Mr. Zeman’s defeated opponent in last year’s runoff, Jiří Drahoš, says a second run is definitely “in play”, while ex-sports star Dominik Hašek has also signalled his interest.

The legendary Czech ice hockey goaltender Dominik Hašek, dubbed The Dominator, has not ruled out running for president, when Miloš Zeman’s second term in office expires in 2023.

Hašek said in an interview for Radio Impuls that he could well imagine himself in the top post, although he was not actively preparing for such a move now. “Who knows what may happen in three years’ time - anything is possible,” he told the radio host.

In his 16-season National Hockey League career, Hašek played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators.

During the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, he led the Czech national ice hockey team to its first and only Olympic gold medal. The crowds at home welcomed him with the chant “Hašek na Hrad” or “Hašek at Prague Castle”. He retired in 2012.

The Senate has passed a draft law that would make it easier for the children and grandchildren of exiles from Communist Czechoslovakia to obtain Czech citizenship.

The legislation pertains to descendants of Czechs stripped of their Czechoslovak citizenship prior to 1989. Applicants must provide documentation detailing when and how their parent or grandparent lost their citizenship in order to be eligible.

The bill, which went through several readings in both houses of Parliament, must be signed by the president to become law.

According to the Interior Ministry, the change in law could lead to applications from hundreds of people, including families of former Czechoslovak citizens living in crisis-torn Venezuela.

The Czech Senate has voted to bring charges against President Miloš Zeman for allegedly violating the country’s constitution, including by refusing to appoint a government minister. However, the make-up of the lower house means the move is unlikely to oust the head of state.

The upper house of Czech Parliament voted in favour of a proposal for a constitutional complaint against President Miloš Zeman. The proposal received 48 votes on Wednesday, while 20 senators voted against and 7 abstained. If the proposal also receives support from the majority of the lower house, it will reach the constitutional court. However, this is unlikely, due to the ruling ANO-Social Democrat coalition, supported by the Communist Party, holding a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. The Freedom and Direct Democracy Party, which seems likely to support the president as well, controls a further 19 seats.

The impulse for the draft complaint is the alleged influencing of the judiciary by President Zeman and his staff. The president’s recent unwillingness to accept the resignation of Culture Minister Antonín Staněk has also been added into the complaint.

In mid-June President Zeman dismissed the accusation, saying that it was a sign of constitutional illiteracy.

The Communist Party leadership is due to meet with representatives of the ANO party on Tuesday to assess to what extent the minority government of ANO and the Social Democrats is fulfilling the tolerance agreement with the Communists which has enabled it to govern.

The Communist Party has tolerated the government in return for policy concessions and support for its own stated policy priorities, such as a tax on church restitutions and increased expenditures in the social sphere.

The Communist Party has so far shown no indication that it might withdraw this support over the scandals surrounding the prime minister or the drawn-out crisis concerning the culture minister.

The opposition parties have criticized the drawn-out political conflict, calling it a theatre of the absurd and arguing that the present government is harming the country’s interests by a never–ending series of scandals that prevents it from focussing on the country’ real problems.

The head of the Pirate Party, Ivan Bartoš, says it is not the culture minister who is at the core of the problem, but Prime Minister Andrej Babiš who is suspected of EU subsidy fraud and unwilling to stand up to the president.

Miroslav Kalousek, head of the TOP 09 deputies group in the lower house, argues that the present head of state has no respect for the Constitution and is being left to do as he will.

The Social Democratic party is divided over how to proceed in the drawn-out dispute over a change- of-guard at the Culture Ministry, with mounting calls for the party to walk out of the government if the coalition agreement is not fully respected. The party leadership is to meet on Monday to decide how to proceed in the matter.

The Social Democrats‘ decision to effect a change at the post of culture minister has been thwarted by President Miloš Zeman, who first refused to accept the incumbent minister’s resignation and then ignored a request by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš for his dismissal and replacement by the party’s chosen successor.

At a meeting on Friday between President Zeman, Social Democrat leader Jan Hamáček and Culture Minister Antonín Staněk, the president said he would accept the culture minister’s resignation on July 31st and would await the result of the Social Democrat leadership meeting on Monday as regards his successor. The party has already nominated Michael Šmarda for the post, a choice that the president does not approve of.

In line with the coalition agreement between ANO and the Social Democrats each party is fully entitled to decide who will be in charge of their given portfolios.

Charges have been filed against a Prague prosecutor for allegedly taking bribes in 2013 from a former judge, who is now in prison on corruption charges, Czech TV reports.

The prosecutor, Pavel Suchánek, was acquitted in October on charges that he took a bribe from Ondřej Havlín, a judge who earlier served as an ambassador to Croatia and later Bulgaria.

Six others prosecutors had faced charges in 2013. Only one was sentenced.

The Czech lower house of Parliament has approved a cabinet proposal that would see medical marihuana mostly covered by public health insurance.

According to the proposal, which will now go to the Senate, insurers would cover 90 percent of the cost of for medical marihuana per month on a maximum of 30 grams per patient.

MPs rejected an amendment by Pirate deputy Tomáš Vymazal to make the payment 100 percent and set the monthly limit at 180 grams.