Czech Republic: Constitutional Court to check Klaus's presidential amnesty again

The Czech Constitutional Court will discuss the controversial New Year presidential amnesty again, daily Lidove noviny says yesterday, adding that the Constitutional Court recently dismissed a senators' complaint against the amnesty but the new one is based on different arguments.

The amnesty declared by the then president Vaclav Klaus pardoned short prison and suspended sentences and halted the criminal proceedings if they lasted more than eight years and if the maximum prison sentence that can be imposed in such cases does not exceed ten years, including some high-profile corruption and financial fraud cases.

Critics say the latter provision violated the rights of the parties who were damaged by the pardoned suspects and claimed a compensation within the criminal proceedings.

The new complaint has been filed by the Environmental Law Service (EPS) organisation on behalf of a man who lost a chance of reacquiring his lost money as a result of Klaus's amnesty. "It is in the public interest that all possibilities of legal defence against the amnesty be exhausted," EPS lawyer Pavel Franc said.

Read more: LN: Constitutional Court to check Klaus's presidential amnesty again | Prague Monitor

Czech Republic: Rivals in Czech Presidential Runoff Support Warmer Ties With Europe - by Dan Bilefsky

An outspoken former prime minister and the current foreign minister will face each other in the Czech Republic’s presidential runoff in two weeks, according to the results of the first round of voting released Saturday.

The charismatic former prime minister, Milos Zeman, won 24.21 percent of the vote, giving him a narrow lead over Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, an ardent supporter of the European Union and the United States, who got 23.4 percent.

This is the first direct popular vote for a head of state in the Czech Republic. Czechoslovakia split in 1993 to create the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

The winner will succeed President Vaclav Klaus, a vociferous critic of the European Union who once compared the European bloc to a Communist state. He has dominated Czech politics for decades.

Both Mr. Zeman and Mr. Schwarzenberg are proponents of European integration, so the next president is expected to offer a decisive break with the outspoken anti-European statements of the Klaus era.

Read more: Rivals in Czech Presidential Runoff Support Warmer Ties With Europe - NYTimes.com

Czech Republic: Interior Ministry selects 8 presidential candidates

Prague

The Czech Interior Ministry has registered eight candidates for the January direct presidential election, turning down the bids of three of eleven serious candidates, Sovereignty chairwoman Jana Bobosikova, economist Vladimir Dlouhy and businessman and senator Tomio Okamura.

The petitions with people's signatures in support of the three candidates include too many invalid data. As a result, their number of signatories sank below the required 50,000, the ministry said on its website. The candidates can file an appeal against the decision with the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS).

The eight registered candidates include three nominated by deputies or senators and five who submitted petitions with more than 70,000 signatures, which prevented their ousting over invalid data.

Fischer and Zeman who are favourites of the election according to public opinion polls also had invalid signatures - more than 10 percent of the total, but they collected many more than required.

The incumbent President Vaclav Klaus's second and final possible five-year mandate expires in early March.

The first round of the country's first direct presidential election is due on January 11-12.
The election might be delayed if some of the eliminated candidates turned to the Constitutional Court that has no deadline for giving its verdict.

Read more: Interior Ministry selects 8 presidential candidates | Prague Monitor

Czech president Vaclav Klaus now backs EU Lisbon Treaty

EU-Digest

Czech president Vaclav Klaus backs EU Lisbon Treaty

Czech President Vaclav Klaus is satisfied with a declaration by European Union leaders intended to pave the way to ratification of the bloc's Lisbon treaty, Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said on Thursday. Efforts to get the new treaty past the final roadblock coincided with stepped-up lobbying for the post of president, with several new candidates coming forward to challenge former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. Leading politicians of the European left appeared to have dealt a fatal blow to Tony Blair’s chances of becoming the first permanent president of the European Union, after Spanish Premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the Socialist bloc wants the new position of EU Foreign Minister. The next step on the eight-year path toward the overhaul of the EU’s decision-making machinery is a ruling due next week by the Czech supreme court, which has already backed the treaty once.

BBC NEWS/EU-Digest: Polish leader ratifies EU treaty but Czech Republic President Klaus still stalling with political games

Vaclav Klaus, is he overstepping his powers in bypassing the Czech Government by trying to block the Lisbon Treaty?

For the complete report from the BBC NEWS click on this link

Polish leader ratifies EU treaty but Czech Republic President Klaus still stalling with political games

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has signed the European Union's much-delayed Lisbon Treaty. His signature means the treaty, which is intended to streamline decision-making, remains un-ratified by only one country, the Czech Republic. It must be ratified by all 27 member states before it can come into force. Mr Kaczynski, a noted Eurosceptic, said he was convinced the treaty would be successful but that the EU should remain a union of sovereign states.

Note EU-Digest: Both houses of the Czech Republic, which represent the people of the Czech Republic have ratified the treaty. Questionable personal demands by the Czech President to make last minute changes to the treaty are now delaying the final ratification. The question which arises, however is if the Czech president has the power to negotiate such a clause? Some believe that rests only with the Czech government, who have already ratified the treaty. Therefore it seems that it is president Klaus himself who is exceeding his powers. It is now up to the Czech government to tell Mr. Klaus to stop playing populist political games. If they don't the EU should advise the Czech Republic to sign the treaty or get out of the EU.

The Sydney Morning Herald: Czech Republic - Vaclav Klaus: Beware the church of climate alarm - by Miranda Devine

Czech President Vaclav Klaus "Dr. Strangelove"

For the complete report from The Sydney Morning Herald click on this link

Czech Republic - Vaclav Klaus: Beware the church of climate alarm - by Miranda Devine

"As the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, an economist, anti-totalitarian and climate change sceptic, prepares to take up the rotating presidency of the European Union next year, climate alarmists are doing their best to traduce him. The New York Times opened a profile of Klaus, 67, this week with a quote from a 1980s communist secret agent's report, claiming he behaves like a "rejected genius", and asserts there is "palpable fear" he will "embarrass" the EU. But the real fear driving climate alarmists wild is that a more rational approach to the fundamentalist religion of global warming may be in the ascendancy - whether in the parliamentary offices of the world's largest trading bloc or in the living rooms of Blacktown."

As the global financial crisis takes hold, perhaps people are starting to wonder whether the so-called precautionary principle, which would have us accept enormous new taxes in the guise of an emissions trading scheme and curtail economic growth, is justified, based on what we actually know about climate.

Note EU-Digest: The viewpoint of Sydney Morning Herald's Miranda Devine is a typical conservative corporate reaction, protecting corporate interests above the environment and long term human needs. The fact is that Mr. Klaus, the ceremonial non-universally elected President of the Czech Republic, is considered a "Dr.Stangelove" by many politicians in Europe and by a large number of people in his own country. Unfortunately the Czech Republic will take over the 6 months rotational EU Presidency from France in January. This will provide Mr. Klaus with a "soap-box" to spout all his nonsensical theories about the EU, politics and the environment. But.... eventually its all to the benefit of freedom of expression, still alive and well in Europe.

The Oregonian:Vaclav Klaus-Meet the new face of the European Union - danger looms ahead for EU - by Rick Attig

For the complete report from the OregonLive.com click on this link

Vaclav Klaus-Meet the new face of the European Union-danger looms ahead for EU - by Rick Attig

When Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, swept through Portland a month or so ago on a tour to promote his new book on how global warming is a "myth," he paused long enough to share a friendly pint with the newspaper's beer columnist and lecture three Editorial Board members about climate change and European politics. It is his views on the EU that has Klaus in the international news this week, because the Czech Republic, and thus Klaus himself, are next in line to assume the rotating presidency of the EU. He assumes that role Jan. 1, replacing the union's departing leader, Nicolas Sarkozy of France. Klaus couldn't be more different than Sarkozy. As The New York Times reported Monday, there are fears that Klaus will embarrass the world's largest trading bloc, and derail its efforts to respond to the economic crisis and to the risks posed by climate change. He will, at least, be the first EU president to have called for it to be "scrapped" and to compare the organization to a "communist state," a claim that prompted the Czech foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, to say that Klaus is critical of the EU because he does not fully understand how it works. There's that wink again. During the interview in Portland Vaclav Klaus batted away questions like they were annoying insects, and we got a glimpse or two of the leader that a British historian, Timothy Garton, called "one of the rudest men I have ever met."

Prague Daily Monitor: Mediterranean weather will prevail in Central Europe, expert says

For the complete report from the Prague Daily Monitor click on this link

Mediterranean weather will prevail in Central Europe, expert says

People in Central Europe, including the Czech Republic, will have to cope with the Mediterranean type of weather and extreme phenomena, mainly drought and heavy precipitation, Czech climatologist Jan Pretel told CTK today. Pretel, who is attending a meeting of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that man's share in global warming is beyond doubt. "There is really a minimal number of those who deny this," Pretel said.

One of those who denies this is Czech President Vaclav Klaus who in his replies to U.S. Congressmen's questions recently compared environmentalism to communism and dismissed claims that man himself destroys his planet.