News

Preparations are in full swing for the Day of Czech Statehood. The holiday commemorates the death of Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, who was murdered in Stará Boleslav on Sept. 28, in 935.

The skull of Saint Wenceslas will arrive in Stará Boleslav at 7 p.m. on Sunday for the traditional pilgrimage to the Basilica of Saint Wenceslas, where the duke was slain. It will remain in the church throughout the pilgrimage.

At the ceremonial mass on Marian Square, the skull will for the first time be replaced by a newly made silver reliquary containing a relic of the Czech patron saint. This is to prevent the skull from sustaining damage due to repeated transfers.

A lower state budget deficit would have been possible, but only by cutting spending on security, energy and transport infrastructure, Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček (ANO) said in a television debate on Saturday. He said the government had rejected such cuts because they could have had a seriously damaging impact on the country's functioning. Around 97 percent of the budget consists of mandatory, legally required spending, according to Havlíček. The government will therefore have to start looking for savings in strategic areas in the coming years.

Mayors and Independents leader Vít Rakušan described the planned 386-billion-crown deficit as an “economic crime.” The opposition has called a vote of no-confidence in the government over the deficit.

The state would be unwise to restrict funding for a functioning network of church schools, Prague Archbishop Stanislav Přibyl told the Czech News Agency.

He said churches would not have enough money to keep the schools running without state support, meaning some could have to close. His comments came in response to recent remarks by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) about state funding for private and church schools.

Babiš said earlier this month that Education Minister Robert Plaga (ANO) should explain why the state provides 20 billion crowns a year to private schools and why it funds church schools when the Catholic Church had received 165 billion crowns in restitution. A week later, he said the government did not intend to abolish such schools or make across-the-board cuts to their funding. State funding for private and church schools is required by law.

Aristocrat Karel Eduard Paar, emeritus Grand Prior of the Sovereign Order of Malta and the son of the former owner of Bechyně Chateau, has died aged 92.

“The Czech Grand Priory of the Sovereign Order of Malta mourns the death of Karel Eduard Paar,” the order's chancellor Julian Chadwick told Novinky.cz.

Paar was born on January 4, 1934, the second child of Prince Alfons and Countess Sophie, members of one of Europe's oldest aristocratic families.

He died on Friday morning at the Sisters of Mercy of Saint Charles Borromeo Hospital in Prague after long-term health problems.