Czech News Daily

He’ll become Prime Minister today, even without support from leadership of the People’s party.  Awaiting him will be a ‘choice’ of ministers dictated to him by the political parties. ‘I might veto some names. And why not?’, said the Chairman of the Czech Office of Stastistics Jan Fischer in an interview with Lidové Noviny.

How do you respond to hearing that the leaders of the two most powerful parties ODS and ČSSD have told the President of the Republic that a decision has been reached, and that tomorrow at 2pm you will be named Prime Minister?

I released a statement about that and nothing has since changed so there’s nothing I can add. I can confirm of course that I accept the task. But at the moment there’s nothing further I can say. More information will follow today, but we are at the beginning in all of this. The statement says that we agreed with both leaders, ODS and ČSSD, that the negotiations for the forming of a new government will begin right after Easter. To say anything else right now would be  premature and speculative.

A couple of days ago you reacted sceptically to the question of becoming Prime Minister due to concerns about the party secretaries. The people’s party were against, but even so you will still be Prime Minister. What feelings do you have on this?

I don’t consider that important. I’ll just repeat that I’m prepared to accept the nomination for the title of new Prime Minister. And my task will be first of all to establish a new government. That’s really all I’m prepared to say. I don’t have anything to add.

I was asking about human emotions. You will be Prime Minister. Surely you myst feel something…

Of course, that feeling is huge, huge, huge, If you want human emotions then immense, gigantic, enormous. The work and the responsibilities which lie before me are huge. A huge amount of work will be necessary in the choosing of each cabinet members. To prepare a good team. To organise an agenda.. That is what I feel, the endless amount of work which I have before me…

I was asking however about your first reaction, when you found out that on Thursday you’ll go to the castle and the President will name you Prime Minister. Surely you didn’t just say to yourself well yeah, that’ll be a lot of work…

That’s exactly what I said to myself. That’s when I realised that the work is already on its way, that it’s actually true and that right after Easter that the negotiations will actually start. One of those human emotions was that I will have to carefully hand over the Czech Office of Statistics so that the institution, which employs 1600 people, can continue to function well. These are practical things. Another thing is that you loose some of your privacy. Definitely. That also means something. For your family. That you have to organise your life in a different way. In a way that will allow you some time for basic privacy. Probably not. But I take that into account. It will be very different to anything I’ve done so far. I’ve watched from the sidelines, but I’ve never been directly involved. I am however optimistic.

The state will start contributing billions of crowns this year  for the insulation of homes and apartment buildings and to ecological heating.

Green Savings, the biggest ecologic program for households in the Czech Republic will be introduced today by Environment Minister Martin Bursík and it now seems certain that the State Environment Fund will spend billions on it.

An investigation by company Factum Invenio carried out before the programme was announced indicates that tens of thousands of households could have interest in the fund. Families want to save on heating and therefore plan on insulating their homes or at least replacing windows. For many of them however such improvements are too expensive.

The state fund should decrease the cost of insulation by hundreds of thousands of crowns. In this year alone 10 billion crowns should go to households from the Green Savings fund and a further 15 billion over the next 3 years.

Up to 220 000 per house

Factum Invenio in February this year surveyed 1162 owners of family houses and 251 owners or managers of apartment buildings.

‘Over the next 4 years 42% of house owners are planning energy saving improvements. In the case of apartment buildings that figure is a further 3% higher,’ stated Factum Invenio in the summary of their report.

For 63% of house owners and 55% of apartment building owners the greatest barrier to insulating the whole building, or at least replacing windows and doors, is the high cost involved.

The Green Savings program is counting on the state to pay households up to half of the cost of insulating a family home to a maximum of 220 thousand crowns.

‘We’ve calculated the usual amount of assistance to be around 35%,’ said Petr Štěpánek, director of the state fund for the environment.

When Factum Invenio asked owners of houses and apartment buildings what state ecology grants should be available for, most of those questioned supported insulation.

Amongst owners of family houses 67% answered that the fund should support insulation whilst amongst owners of apartment buildings the figure was a further 9% higher.

‘In second place was the use of grants for replacement of windows or doors,’ stated the agency. ‘A fifth of owners of family houses would welcome grants for solar panels.’

The sale of new cars in the Czech republic has started to slowly but noticeably rise. Whilst the year on year sales fell by 12% in January, sales in March have already been around one percent higher than last year. New cars sold in the first quarter of this year so far stands at 31 075 vehicles which is down 5.9 percent on last year’s first quarter. In the last few weeks however, sales have seen a distinct rise in demand due to an abundance of discounts and the ability to write off DPH (Sales Tax).

Up to date sales figures were released today by the Association of Automobile Importers.

According to Pavel Tunkl of the Association of Automobile Importers the fall in sales across all categories has up until now been caused mainly by lower demand in company orders, as companies have been waiting for the ability to write-off DPH on company cars, a law which came into force on 1st April.

March’s increase in sales is a result of the massive discounts with which sellers attempted to combat falling demand. According to Tunkl prices are currently at an all time low.

28% of businesses were active in buying company car in March, which is approximately a fifth of all Czech companies. In the first quarter of last year  that figure was 42%. The number of petrol engine cars sold year on year increased by 4 percentage points to 75%.

According to the Director of the Association of Automobile Production Antonín Šípek the sale of personal and light utility vehicles could end up at the same level as last year. ‘With the introduction of DPH relief for personal company vehicles the situation this year should level out. Demand in the light utility vehicle segment will shift back to the personal car category,’ he stated.

Sales of imported used cars fell year on year by 45% to 29 716 vehicles. This is attributed both to the introduction of a fee for first registration of old cars and the massive discounts offered by new vehicle sellers.

Presiding over the government which should steer the Czech Republic towards snap elections in the autumn will most likely be Chairman of the Czech Office of Statistics Jan Fischer.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek following negotiations between the three parties of the governing coalition and the social democrat opposition on Sunday evening.

‘We agreed that I will put the proposal for the name of the new Government Chairman to the President,’ informed Mirek Topolánek after the negotiations. ‘That name will be Jan Fischer’.

The three parties of the governing coalition signed a collective agreement that parliamentary snap elections should take place by 15th October at the latest. ‘The elections will most likely take place on the 9th and 10th of October.’

Mirek Topolánek stated that the Chairman of the Office of Statistics is s person who will reliably lead the Czech Republic towards elections. ‘He is a universally respected individual whom we all agreed on without a problem’, said the Prime Minister.

Topolánek’s words were also confirmed by ČSSD Chairman Jiří Paroubek who further specified that the new government won’t be comprised of any current ministers.

‘The new cabinet will consist of cross-party experts which each of the parties will propose to Mr Fisher,’ advised Paroubek.

Jan Fischer was born in Prague in 1951. After the foundation of the Czech Republic as an autonomous state he was from the year 1993 Vice Chairman of the Czech Office of Statistics and from the beginning of the 1990’s headed the teams processing the results of parliamentary and community elections.

He was named Chairman of the Office of Statistics by President Klaus in April 2003. He’s a member of several prestigious institutions including the Czech Statistics Society and the International Institute of Statistics.