A battle is being fought over who takes leadership of the Czech government’s reform of the police and state prosecution service. Three different bids were made last week for a share of the action, headed by deputy prime minister Karolína Peake’s  (Public Affairs, VV) bid to put herself in charge of a government working group to plan the reform agenda. The proposal, putting the interior and justice ministers in second place, will resurface this week but its chances are considered slim.

The main opposition Social Democrats (ČSSD) are taking the lead with a proposal to limit the extremely high cost of Czech election campaigns while the government coalition prefers pushing ahead with its own initiative, although coalition parties seem far from united on what changes should be sought. The result is that Senate and regional elections this year will continue according to the much criticized old rules with the risk that they will stay in place for the forseeable future.

The new look coalition in command of Prague City Hall has cast out unwanted supervisory board members from the supervisory board of municipal waste company Pražské služby. The main casualties of the new broom are ODS members opposed to mayor Bohuslav Svoboda, former coalition partners from the Social Democrats (ČSSD) and Natland Group, which refused to come clean on its share stake ownership.

The best formula for good diplomatic talks is to leave awkward issues off the agenda. That, at least, appears to have been the message from the recent meeting between Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas and his Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Azarov. No mention was made of the multi-million debt owed to Prague for constructing a gas pipeline across the former Soviet Union.