News

Three-time Olympic champion Ester Ledecká will not take part in the Alpine Skiing World Championships starting in France in two weeks due to a collarbone injury she sustained in the summer. She is still planning to attend the snowboarding world championships in Bakuriani, Georgia in the second half of February.

Ms Ledecká fractured her collarbone while training in the summer and had to undergo a second operation in November. After a check-up on Thursday, doctors said that although the injury is healing well after the surgery, competitive skiing would be too risky and recommended that she not participate.

The Czech Republic is the only country in the European Union that increased its national debt year-on-year in the third quarter of last year, according to data published by the EU statistical office Eurostat on Monday.

However, Czechia is still among the countries with the lowest national debt in the EU overall. While its debt climbed to 45.2 percent of GDP from 40.4 percent a year earlier, this number is still only a little over half the EU average. In the EU as a whole, national debt decreased to 85.1 percent of GDP in the same period.

Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavský has said in an interview with Czech newspaper Seznam Zprávy that he "strongly condemns" presidential candidate Andrej Babiš's statement regarding NATO.

Mr Babiš said in a debate broadcast on Czech television that he would not send the Czech army to assist in the event of a military attack on Poland or the Baltic states, even though these countries are, like Czechia, all members of NATO. Mr Babiš later retracted the statement and said on Twitter that if a NATO ally were really attacked, he would comply with the NATO treaty on collective defense.

Nevertheless, his original statement still caused an international uproar and clearly damaged the image of the Czech Republic abroad, as well as threatening its security, said Mr Lipavský.

Presidential candidate Andrej Babiš caused an uproar when he questioned his country’s possible assistance to its closest NATO allies in Sunday’s debate on Czech Television ahead of the second round of presidential elections this weekend. When asked if he would send troops to help Poland or any of the Baltic states in the event of an attack, Mr Babiš replied “certainly not.”

Mr Babiš’s statement was immediately criticised by top politicians, including Latvia’s foreign minister Edgars Rinkevic, making headlines both in Czech and foreign media.

On Monday, Mr Babiš corrected his statement, saying that in case a NATO member state was attacked, he would abide by NATO’s Article 5 collective-defence clause.