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The Czech economy is in a period of recession-inflation, characterised by high inflation and slow economic growth at the same time, economist Jan Švejnar said on Czech Television on Sunday in a discussion between himself and two other economists. He further stated Czechia and Spain are the only countries currently in recession in Europe, and only three countries have high core inflation (which does not include fluctuating food and energy prices): Czechia, Poland and Hungary.

Fellow economist Jan Gregor pointed out that the situation is made all the more difficult by the fact that the whole of Europe is in a period of economic decline. Mojmír Hampl added that, based on historical experience, Czechia is not good at handling economic crises and the effects of such crises are worse here than in other countries.

Pavel Rychetský, the current president of the Czech Constitutional Court, said on Czech television that the new president could, and even has to, ignore the decision of his predecessor if he appointed the head of the Constitutional Court at a time when the position is filled. Mr Rychetský said that the president cannot appoint someone to a position that is filled, adding that such a proposition is absurd.

Current president Miloš Zeman has previously stated that he intends to appoint the new head of the Constitutional Court, although the mandate of the current president Pavel Rychetský is due to end in August during the presidency of Petr Pavel, while Zeman's term ends in March.

The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute issued an alert on Sunday for extreme cold weather with a risk of frostbite on unprotected parts of the body, which will affect mainly the Bohemian-Moravian highlands, and the north, east and northeast of the country. Temperatures are predicted to drop below minus 12 degrees on Sunday night, with the freezing weather expected to last until at least Wednesday morning.

The warning applies to the Hradec Králové, Vysočina and Pardubice regions, and from Tuesday also to the Liberec region. Temperatures well below freezing will occur mainly at night and in the morning.

Small children, the elderly and the sick are recommended to limit their time outside, and everyone is recommended to protect themselves with several layers of warm clothing and suitable footwear.

Controls on the Czech-Slovak border, which Czechia introduced last September due to a sharp increase in the number of migrants heading to Western Europe via Slovakia and the Czech Republic, have ended as of Sunday. It is now possible for tourists to freely cross the land border once again, which, although Czechia and Slovakia are both part of the Schengen area, was not possible when the border controls were in place.

However, checks on trains on the Slovak side of the border will continue, and police officers will continue to surveil the border area on and off the roads at random.

When the controls were at their height, soldiers and customs officers were employed to help. However, the situation has since improved, and the government therefore gradually reduced the number of checks and has now cancelled them altogether. According to Interior Minister Vít Rakušan, the police were catching 400 migrants a day last September, while now it is often just individual people. The vast majority, 93 percent, of migrants detained last year were Syrians, mostly young men.

Since the controls were introduced last September, the police have checked a total of 3.2 million people crossing the border, detained 9,660 illegal migrants and 142 people suspected of smuggling, and denied entry to 2,636 people.

The government has used up four months of the six-month period during which Schengen countries can decide to use temporary border controls.