Centrist Presidential Canidate Jiri Drahos Overtakes Milos Zeman in Polls

Jiri Drahos

A new poll conducted by the Median agency has suggested that presidential candidate Jiří Drahoš, the former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences, would make it into the second round of the presidential election in January and would narrowly defeat the incumbent, Miloš Zeman, by a total of 51 percent to 49 percent. 

The poll was conducted in the month of October; a month earlier, the poll suggested Drahoš would finish with 55.5 percent of the vote. The poll did not take into account the candidacy of latecomer former prime minister Mirek Topolánek, who announced his intention to run this week. 


Another poll, conducted by CVVM and published on Monday, also suggested Mr Drahoš would make it into the second round. According to that survey, 34 percent would vote for the incumbent, 22 percent for Mr Drahoš and 13 percent for lyricist Michal Horáček. 


Source: Radio Praha

Andrej Babis Selects Nominee for Minister of Industry and Trade

Andrej Babiš, the head of ANO tasked with forming the new government, has said he has found a candidate for the post of Minister of Industry and Trade. However, he has not divulged the person’s name as yet. Mr Babiš is looking to form a minority government capable of finding broader political backing in the lower house, after his party won almost 30 percent of the vote in the election in October. 

On Monday, ANO representatives met with representatives of the Civic Democratic party to discuss posts in the new Chamber of Deputies; ANO is pushing for Radek Vondráček to become the new house speaker. Facing opposition to the idea, Babiš pointed out the last election winners, the Social Democrats, had also secured the post. 

Source: Radio Praha

Czech Communist Party Leader Signals Support for Minority Government

The head of the Communist party, Vojtěch Filip met with President Miloš Zeman at Lány chateau on Tuesday to discuss conditions for supporting a minority government headed by ANO leader Andrej Babiš. The Communists would insist, Mr Filip said, on a general referendum bill, a program regularly raising the minimum wage over a four-year period, and a bill protecting natural wealth, that is, the ownership of natural resources. 


He indicated that anyone who though lithium reserves in the Czech Republic would no longer be an issue after the election, were mistaken. 

Other items important for the party, Mr Filip told journalists after his meeting with the president, were a matter to be debated. He estimated that a new minority government could face a confidence vote by Christmas.

Source: Radio Praha

Czech Retail Sales Continue Upward Trend

Czech retail sales growth accelerated for the second straight month in September, figures from the Czech Statistical Office showed Monday.  

Retail sales, excluding automobile trade advanced an unadjusted 6.2 percent year-over-year in September, faster than the 4.8 percent rise in August.  

Retail trade of automotive fuel alone grew 5.2 percent annually in September, while sales of food, beverages and tobacco in specialized stores decreased by 2.0 percent.  

On a calendar-adjusted basis, retail sales climbed 7.4 percent in September from a year ago.  

Retail sales, including sales of automotive trade rose at a slightly slower pace of 3.6 percent annually in September, after a 3.7 percent gain in the prior month. Economists had expected the growth to moderate to 2.5 percent. Month-on-month, retail sales increased a seasonally adjusted 1.9 percent in September. 
 

Source: RTTNEWS

Former Czech PM Mirek Topolánek Confirms Presidential Bid

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has announced he is running for in the presidential election scheduled for January. 

Topolanek confirmed his candidacy to Czech public television on Sunday. The colorful and outspoken politician is set to say more on Tuesday, the deadline for entering the race. 

Topolanek served as prime minister of the Czech Republic during 2006-2009 as the head of the conservative Civic Democratic Party. He was a staunch supporter of a U.S. missile defense plan President Barack Obama ultimately abandoned. 

Topolanek often made headlines, such as when he called Obama’s economic recovery plan a “road to hell.” He left politics for business in 2010. 

Czech President Milos Zeman, who is known for his pro-Russia views and anti-migrant rhetoric, is seeking re-election and currently favored to win. 

Source: AP

Why is Czech Republic Failing on Human Rights?

The Czech Republic’s human rights record came under scrutiny at the United Nations on Monday. Among the recommendations made were for the country to improve the integration of Roma in Czech society, step up the fight against racism, xenophobia and islamophobia and strive for full gender equality.

The Czech government was praised for ending the practice of segregating Romany children in special schools and reaching agreement on the buy-out of a pig farm located on the site of a former concentration camp for Romanies during WWII in order to make way for a dignified memorial to the victims.

The full list of recommendations should be made available by November 10th.

The Universal Periodic Review, through which each UN member country is examined once every five years, allows governments to review a country’s human rights record and make recommendations for improvements. In the last scrutiny the Czech Republic received 136 recommendations and fulfilled 129 of them.

Czech Election Result Seen As Bad News for Brussels

Britain has long been seen as the exception in Europe: we have bad coffee, we don’t smoke much, and we’re bad at foreign languages. When it comes to the European Union, this is even more the case. Our refusal to join the Euro and our close ties to the US have long had us viewed – unfavourably – as a special case among member states. When Brexit happened, the overriding feeling among European and British elites was ‘only the Brits would do this’.

You’d be forgiven for thinking Britain is the only Eurosceptic nation. But it isn’t. On Monday, Eurosceptic Andrej Babis was announced as the new prime minister of the Czech Republic. His new party, the populist Action for Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO), won nearly 30 per cent of the vote, and ended the 25-year rule of the traditional mainstream parties – the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats, who scored a lowly seven and six per cent respectively.

Babis has been compared, somewhat lazily, to Donald Trump. Mainly because he is a billionaire (and apparently the second richest man in the Czech Republic) who has set himself up as an anti-establishment figure. At the very least Babis had more government experience than Trump. He formed his party before the 2013 parliamentary elections, where it went on to win 19 per cent of the vote. He entered the coalition government, where he served as finance minister and then first deputy prime minister.

There is some shadiness surrounding Babis. He was sacked in May over allegations of tax evasion – which he denies – and he bought up various Czech media companies after forming his political party. Now that he’s PM these issues will need to be held up to scrutiny. But, in terms of his politics, Babis is different to Trump. He is a centrist and has so far ruled out going into coalition with the far-right Freedom and Free Democracy party (SPD), which came third in the election.

The reason Babis’s victory has been presented as another populist result, one that, no doubt, has unsettled EU leaders, is that he’s a Eurosceptic. He campaigned to stand up to Brussels on migrant quotas and is opposed to joining the Euro. (According to a CVVM survey, 72 per cent of Czech people are against joining the Euro.) Babis is very likely to lock horns with French president Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who are pushing for deeper integration in the EU.

Back in May, president of the European Council Donald Tusk tweeted: ‘EU27 unity most important condition for positive #Brexit outcome. Thanks to unity we can also deal with positive agenda. Should be priority.’ But the EU is looking more and more fractured as the year goes on. Eurosceptic leaders are being elected in member states – parties across Europe are beginning to reflect the dissatisfaction and Euroscepticism of their voters.

Earlier this month, the 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz became the new Austrian chancellor, after his Eurosceptic OVP party won around 27 per cent of the vote. Similarly, he campaigned on standing up to Brussels. While he says he wants to remain in the EU, he is now in coalition talks with the far-right FPO, which wants to leave the EU. In Germany, there was the success of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which became the third largest party in Germany, while Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lost 65 seats.

When far-right Eurosceptic Geert Wilders lost the Dutch election in March, Europhiles celebrated it as ‘a blow to [Europe’s] populist surge’. Similar comments were made in May when Macron beat Marine Le Pen. But, in both cases, these populist Eurosceptic parties experienced significant surges in support. Macron, for all of the EU elites’ enthusiasm, was merely seen as the lesser of two evils. Many French people didn’t vote at all.

This gives the lie to the idea of EU unity. And the EU’s anti-democratic clampdowns on defiant member states have made this clear. Recently, the EU reprimanded Poland for passing controversial court reforms. And Hungary has been threatened in the past with EU sanctions for not upholding EU migrant quotas. If the EU cannot achieve ‘unity’ willingly, it tries to enforce it instead.

There are differences between the politics of the parties that are finding new support in Europe. The situation in each European nation has its own context specific to its political climate. The idea that all populist revolts are the same, the rumblings of a European-wide far-right uprising, is just an attempt to dismiss them. And it misses the bigger picture, and the common strands between these revolts.

Voters are exasperated with the established political parties across Europe. Their concerns have been ignored for too long by technocratic elites, and they want change. And this connects with a bubbling Euroscepticism. European citizens are fed up of being dictated to by an unaccountable Brussels, while their own elected leaders won’t stand up to the EU on issues that are affecting their own citizens, like immigration and economic policies.

Brexit might not turn out to be the exception after all.

Former Czech PM Mirek Topolánek Mulls Presidential Bid

Former prime minister Mirek Topolánek may enter the race for president, the news site novinky.cz reported. According to the news site Topolánek is seeking to gain support from the Civic Democratic Party’s ten senators, the precise number of signatures he would need for his candidacy. 



Topolánek himself has neither confirmed this possibility, nor ruled it out, saying he would decide in the next few days. The deadline for registering in the presidential race is Tuesday, November 7th. There are currently 12 candidates in the running, including the incumbent head of state Miloš Zeman.

Source: Radio Praha

September Czech Exports Surpass Imports

Czech foreign trade surplus increased in September from a year ago, as exports grew faster than imports, figures from the Czech Statistical Office showed Friday.

 

The trade surplus rose to CZK 20.2 billion in September from CZK 19.4 billion in the corresponding month last year. Economists had forecast a surplus of CZK 17.8 billion.

 

In August, the surplus was CZK 4.7 billion.

 

Both exports and imports climbed by 1.8 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively in September from last year.

 

On a monthly basis, the seasonally adjusted exports dropped 2.1 percent in September and imports slid by 2.9 percent.

 

Source: Markets Insider