Prague encouraged by Serbia vote, rethinks Kosovo

Source: Beta

PRAGUE -- The Czech government will try to recognize Kosovo’s unilaterally proclaimed independence next week, which it failed to do on April 2.

“At one of the coming government meetings we will return to the question of Kosovo,” Czech Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vondra told daily Hospodarske Noviny.

This will be the second attempt by the Czech government to recognize the Kosovo Albanians' secession.

The next attempt could prove to be successful since Prime Minister Miroslav Topolanek’s Civic Democratic Party appears to be budging on the issue.

The president and founder of the party, Vaclav Klaus is categorically against recognizing Kosovo.

“Not even the positive result of the Serbian elections changes my stance that recognizing Kosovo will be a great mistake for the international community. However, the Czech stance can no longer change the fact that the province is independent,” said Czech Labor Minister Petr Nečas.

After failing to adopt the resolution for recognizing the Kosovo independence on April 2, the Czech government postponed the vote until after the Serbian parliamentary elections.

“The results of the Serbian elections were a pleasant surprise. That is the reason why the Democratic-Christians are thinking about allowing Kosovo to be recognized,” said Minister without Portfolio Cyril Svoboda.

The Czech National Party will decided today if it will try and block the move, since the Democratic Christian Union alone does not have enough votes in the cabinet to do so.