News

Crime among children and adolescents in Czechia increased by 33 percent between 2021 and 2024, while suicide has become the second most common cause of death among people under 24, Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (Mayors and Independents) announced at a press conference following a meeting of interior ministers of the Salzburg Forum in Valtice.

One of the forum’s key topics was the rise in youth violence and ways in which individual states are addressing the problem. Minister Rakušan presented the Czech project Safe Childhood, which introduces a comprehensive, systematic, and unified approach to preventing violence. He also discussed with his counterparts how to design preventive programs for scenarios involving crimes on campus.

A survey by Median for Czech Radio indicates that Czechs would most often prefer ANO leader Andrej Babiš (ANO) as the country’s next prime minister. Some 44 percent of respondents supported his return to government. Another 36 percent selected the option “someone else” or “someone else from ANO.” The current head of government, Civic Democratic Party leader Petr Fiala (Spolu) who is heading the Spolu coalition was favoured by 22 percent of those surveyed—fewer than Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (Mayors and Independents) favoured by 25 percent or Freedom and Direct Democracy leader Tomio Okamura (SPD) who won 24 percent support.

Lower Austria’s Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner has issued a sharp protest against the planned expansion of the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic, the Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung reported. In a letter to EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen, the governor asked him to use all available means to halt the expansion of Dukovany as quickly as possible, calling it “a high-risk experiment, taking place on the doorstep of thousands of people in Lower Austria”. The Czech  Ministry of Industry and Trade has countered that Austria has no right to intervene in the energy policy of another EU member state.

Prague councillors have approved an extension of the loan agreement with Moravský Krumlov, allowing Alfons Mucha’s large-format cycle The Slav Epic to remain on display at the local chateau until 2031. The current contract was set to expire in May 2026.

The city decided to prolong the loan while ongoing legal disputes with Mucha’s heirs over ownership of the paintings remain unresolved. Prague had previously reached an agreement with heir John Mucha that envisaged displaying the works in a future exhibition space at the Savarin complex near Wenceslas Square. However, opposition from another heir halted those plans.

City officials are now also considering the Lapidarium at Výstaviště as a potential future home for the paintings.