Home » News » Monday News Briefing

Monday News Briefing

Zeman ahead in presidential poll; Industrial output hits new low in late 2012

Posted: January 7, 2013

By News Desk - Team | Comments (0) | Post comment

Walter Novak

Former PM Milos Zeman has overtaken Jan Fischer as the frontrunner in the presidential race, a recent poll suggests.

Milos Zeman would win the first round of the forthcoming direct presidential election in the Czech Republic, and along with Jan Fischer he would advance to the second round, according to a poll published today. The PPM Factum Agency's poll shows that Zeman, PM in 1998-2002 and former Social Democrat (CSSD) chairman, would gain 25.1 percent of the vote. Fischer, who headed a caretaker cabinet in 2009-10, would be supported by 20.1 percent. Zeman has enjoyed stable voter support, while support for Fischer is dwindling, the pollsters said.

Senators from across the political spectrum are planning to file a Constitutional Court complaint against a portion of President Vaclav Klaus' recent blanket amnesty, which has resulted in the release of approximately 6,000 inmates so far. Klaus announced the partial amnesty in his New Year's speech on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Czech Republic. It applies to convicts with low suspended or prison sentences, elderly convicts and also suspects whose criminal proceedings have lasted for more than eight years.

The amnesty will also halt the prosecution of economic corruption cases, which has earned it widespread criticism. It will apply to some 32,000 people, according to Justice Ministry estimates.

Industrial output results for November 2012 have marked the biggest drop since September 2009, analysts told the Czech News Agency. Industrial production dropped by 3.9 percent year on year in November after October's 4.1 percent increase. Working days adjusted, it declined by 6.2 percent compared with November 2011. Analysts believe output should rebound before the middle of this year in connection with the revival of demand abroad.

News Desk can be reached at
news@praguepost.com

Tags: milos zeman, czech elections, czech republic, czech economic news, czech industry.

Take a link to this article - copy and paste the HTML code from the box below:

<a href="http://www.praguepost.com/news/15180-monday-news-briefing.html"> Monday News Briefing - News - The Prague Post</a>