Friday News Briefing

The presidential run-off between former Social Democrat PM Milos Zeman (now Party of Citizens' Rights, SPOZ) and Foreign Minister and TOP 09 chairman Karel Schwarzenberg started in the Czech Republic at 14:00 today. The polling stations will be open until 22:00 CET. They will reopen at 8:00 on Saturday and close at 14:00. The name of the successor to Vaclav Klaus, whose second and last five-year presidential term expires on March 7, should be known by Saturday evening. The winner will take his oath in Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle on March 8.   

Zeman and Schwarzenberg met in their final television debate Jan. 24 ahead of the direct election's second round. Schwarzenberg said in the live debate broadcast live debate that his statements on the postwar Benes Decrees were distorted in the election campaign. Zeman said Schwarzenberg's words about the Benes Decrees were welcomed by some circles in Austria and Germany and that they worsened the Czech-Slovak relations. Schwarzenberg and Zeman were also asked to comment on the recent promise by Prime Minister David Cameron that Britain would declare a referendum on its European Union membership after British elections in 2015. Both candidates said Britain should remain in the EU.  

The Interior Ministry plans to reduce the maximum amount of legally permissible possession of the drug pervitine. The ministry's plan has been hailed by Germany, where mainly Bavaria faces an influx of pervitine from the neighboring Czech borderland. In related news, Bavarian and Czech police and customs officers seized over one kilogram of pervitine in a joint raid in the borderland, police announced today.

News Desk can be reached at
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