Daily news summary
PM refuses to meet with anti-government demonstrators
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has rejected an appeal from coalition Social Democrat leader Jan Hamáček for him to meet with representatives of the association Million Moments for Democracy which has been organizing anti-Babis protests around the country.
Mr. Babiš said there was no reason to hold such a meeting since the people demonstrating against him in the streets were not interested in hearing his arguments.
The last demonstration against the prime minister on Prague’s Wenceslas Square attracted over 100,000 people.
Russian foreign minister says Moscow’s official stand on 1968 invasion has not changed
The Russian foreign minister, Sergej Lavrov, has said that the Russian stand on the Soviet-led occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 has not changed and is fully in line with the 1993 bilateral treaties that Russia concluded with the Czech and Slovak Republics.
Minister Lavrov gave these assurances to the visiting Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák on Thursday.
The 1993 agreements signed clearly state that the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and the deployment of Russian troops in the country was in breach of international law.
Minister Lavrov said Moscow had no intention of changing its stand on the events and noted that the draft amendment to the law on veterans presented in the Russian Duma was an isolated initiative by a single MP.
The proposed amendment, which claims that the 1968 invasion was aimed at suppressing an attempted coup in Czechoslovakia, met with a strong negative response from Czech and Slovak leaders.
MPs approve changes to law on electronic cash registers
The lower house of Parliament on Friday approved changes to the law on electronic cash registers. The MPs voted in favour of exempting certain social services from the duty to report their earnings electronically.
Despite protests from the opposition, the ruling coalition of ANO and Social Democrats also pushed through extending the EET’s online reporting requirements to other professions, including doctors, artisans and tradesmen.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš introduced the EET in 2016, when he was the finance minister, to counter the grey economy and tax fraud.
Painting by Mikuláš Medek goes for CZK 46 million at auction
A painting by Mikuláš Medek, one of the leading Czech modernist painters, sold for 46 million crowns at an auction in Prague on Thursday. The oil on canvas, called Action I (Egg), has become the artist’s most expensive work of art ever sold at an auction. Bidding for painting started at eight million crowns.
Clean-up operations underway after flash floods
Clean-up operations are still underway in some parts of the Czech Republic, which were hit by flash floods on Thursday. Fire officers have responded to around 300 calls in the wake of the heavy storms, clearing roads, removing fallen trees and pumping water from cellars.
Vondroušová through to French Open final
Czech player Markéta Vondroušová has advanced to the French Open final, after beating Great Britain’s Johana Konta 7-5, 7-6. The 19-year-old needed less than two hours to book a spot in her first career Grand Slam final. The unseeded Vondroušová will face Australia’s Ashleigh Barty in the finals.
Weather
Saturday is expected to be sunny to partly overcast with daytime highs ranging between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius.
