Wednesday News Briefing

NEWS

COLLAPSE Leaders of the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) in Prague are saying internal rifts within their ruling partners in City Hall, the Civic Democrats (ODS), are the reason for the split of the so-called grand coalition that has been in power since November 2010. According to the Czech News Agency (ČTK), they are willing to cede the office of mayor to TOP 09 if the two parties can reach a coalition agreement. TOP 09 won the November 2010 election but, at the time, was unable to form a coalition. Many insiders believe there is still a strong possibility that TOP 09 will form a coalition with the ODS and allow current Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda to remain in office despite having a commanding majority in the Prague Assembly. It had been reported that TOP 09 leaders would insist that a coalition deal with either party allow them to install Zdeněk Tůma, the head of TOP 09 in Prague, as mayor.

SPYING Slovak Defense Minister Ľubomír Galko has been dismissed by interim Prime Minister Iveta Radičová in the wake of accusations by two news outlets that his office is responsible for wire-tapping their journalists, the Slovak daily Sme reported. Radičová confirmed that reports of wire-tapping by Slovak military counter-intelligence were true and said she herself had been monitored. Radičová, whose powers have been curbed since the collapse of her government in October, said President Ivan Gašparovič agrees with her decision to sack Galko. The Slovak dailies Novy Cas and Pravda reported Nov. 21 that journalists at their papers, as well as at television station TA3, had been wiretapped and that the monitoring ceased after the collapse of Radičová's government.

INTOXICATED Police arrested an intoxicated bus driver Nov. 22 who reportedly had 4.7 parts per thousand of alcohol in his blood while he was transporting passengers, ČTK reported. The driver was so drunk that one of his passengers was forced to drive the bus because he had become incapacitated, police said. "As one of the passengers had a bus driving license, he drove the bus to the next stop, where police came to arrest the driver," a police spokeswoman said. There were about 20 passengers on the bus at the time. The highest blood-alcohol level of any person ever arrested for drunk driving in the Czech Republic was 8 parts per thousand in 2005.

BUSINESS

TECH Brno-based software company Kentico, which focuses on Web publishing systems, wants to raise its turnover in the Czech Republic by about one-third to 90 million Kč this year, Kentico owner Petr Palas told ČTK. Czech sales make up about 70 percent of the company's total turnover already, and to support foreign sales, the company plans to open a branch near London and one in Seattle in the United States. Kentico was rated the fastest-growing Czech technology company in a 2010 Deloitte survey.

AUTOMOTIVE Peugeot and Citroen in the Czech Republic will have a new director at the helm from January next year. Wojciech Tomaskiewicz will become the new general director, the PSA group said in a press release. The newly created post is part of a larger management shake up at PSA Peugeot Citroen in Europe. Tomaskiewicz will be in charge of securing business and economic results of both brands and introducing a new development strategy for other products and services.

ACQUISITION The CPI group owned by Czech billionaire Radovan Vítek has submitted a bid for the purchase of assets and projects of the indebted developer ECM Real Estate Investments, the insolvency administrator said at a creditor meeting in Prague Nov. 22, ČTK reported. ECM creditors have still not decided if selling the assets is the best step, so it will now be up to a court to decide if the company will go bankrupt or will get a chance to reorganize.

WEATHER

Prague; Czech Republic; Foggy; High: 4 C; Low: -1 C

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