New Czech Eurosceptical party seeks registration

Machova euroskeptická strana požádala o registraci

Prague - The new Czech right-wing Eurosceptical party, the Party of Free Citizens (SSO), applied for its registration with the Interior Ministry today, Petr Mach, executive director of the Czech Centre for Economics and Politics (CEP) and the SSO's initiator, told CTK.

The preparatory committee that presented the party's priorities last week has already gathered the necessary 1000 signatures for the registration.

The SSO's programme priority will be the struggle against the Lisbon treaty to reform the EU institutions.

The Czech Republic is the only of the EU's 27 countries not to have taken a position on the Lisbon treaty so far.

Besides, the SSO wants to promote low taxes, the reduction of red tape, clean environment "without any extremist ideology," the development of nuclear energy and the halting of biofuel production at the cost of food.

The party is also willing to cooperate with the movement Libertas of Irish Lisbon treaty opponent Declan Ganley in preparations of the European Parliament (EP) elections scheduled for June.

Mach, who is also a close aide to President Vaclav Klaus, said during the presentation last week that the SSO is open to cooperation with Libertas or its Czech branch if it is established.

The SSO will have a jumping ram on a green field as its logo. Mach said the animal symbolises the path towards freedom and marks a new beginning.

EU flags to be at all Czech castles except Prague, Klaus's seat

Prague - Prague Castle, seat of Eurosceptical President Vaclav Klaus, will be the only state-controlled castle and chateau in which the EU flag will not be hoisted during the ongoing Czech EU presidency, spokesman for the National Heritage Institute (NPU) Zdenek Musil told CTK today.

Klaus, a prominent critic of the Lisbon treaty and the current trends in the EU, has always refused to hoist the EU flag at Prague Castle, the biggest heritage site in the Czech Republic.

Klaus is of the view that the EU should never be at Prague Castle as this is a symbol of the Czech state, not of the EU. Nevertheless, Greenpeace activists hoisted the EU flag at Prague Castle for a short time on Wednesday night before being ousted by the police and firemen.

The Castle Compound of Karlstejn Learn More

As shown in the photo above, NPU staff hoisted the first EU flags on Wednesday at the castles and chateaux that are opened all year. It has appeared at the Karlstejn, Hluboka, Becov nad Teplou and Lednice castles. EU foreign ministers will meet at the Hluboka neo-Gothic chateau in March. The NPU, that administers a large part of the Czech national heritage, has started to put up the EU flag, thus joining the shared European historical legacy, Musil said.


The Czech Republic took up the six-month EU presidency on New Year's Day.



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Poll January 9th: Vague Apologies of Czech MP Politicians

Prague - Vague apologies of Czech politicians for their unacceptable words or acts will definitely not help improve political culture in the Czech Republic, Martin Weiss writes in the daily Lidove noviny (LN) today.

The attack of junior ruling Christian Democrat (KDU-CSL) chairman Jiri Cunek on his party opponent, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek, was ill-considered and might rather sweep Cunek from the government, Jiri Leschtina writes in Hospodarske noviny (HN) today.

Deputy Prime Minister and Local Development Minister Cunek has repeatedly proposed that Kalousek be dismissed from the coalition cabinet of Mirek Topolanek. However, this step "only legitimises Topolanek's demand for Cunek's resignation," Leschtina says.

Cunek's position would have been better if he had waited for Kalousek and Topolanek attacking him and then had started mobilising his party following, Leschtina says. In any case, one thing is clear - the arguments of Kalousek's supporters are much more substantiated than those of his opponents, which Cunek himself feels, Leschtina points out

Cunek is trying to destroy his party rival ahead of the election congress and the KDU-CSL's inevitable fiasco in the June EP elections.

"If Kalousek does not lose the prime minister's support, Cunek can get rid of him only by the Christian Democrats's departure from the cabinet, which would split the party and bring Cunek's wing closer to (opposition Social Democrat head Jiri Paroubek) and (Communist chairman) Filip. Today's conference of the Christian Democrats will indicate how they like such an idea," Leschtina writes in conclusion.

A new Eurosceptical party might fill the gap on the Czech political scene and even enter parliament, Lukas Jelinek writes in Pravo today. He says that a tiny place for a new small party in parliament probably exists on the verge of the democratic right. The excesses like the ultra-right National Party (NS) and the extremist Workers' Party (DS) cannot saturate such demand.

Jelinek reminds that the senior ruling right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS) are slowly moving to the political centre, abandoning its tough ideological and mainly Eurosceptical positions. A lot of people disillusioned by the EU reform Lisbon treaty can be found in both the left and right camps and nascent Eurosceptical political entities may attract them, Jelinek notes.

He, however, questions the recent poll results, according to which a new right-wing grouping linked to the Libertas Eurosceptical movement of Irish opponent to Lisbon treaty Declan Ganley has a chance to gain support of some 20 percent of voters.

"A Eurosceptical party will have to try hard to cross the five percent parliamentary threshold. If it succeeded, it might play a similar role as the (junior opposition) Communists in parliament - to terrify, lure and sometimes even help," Jelinek concludes in Pravo.