News

The legacy of Jan Hus was commemorated on Saturday with church services in Prague's Bethlehem Chapel and the South Bohemian town of Husinec. Roughly 100 people attended the ecumenical service in Husinec, where the priest and church reformer was born around 1370. The town's mayor said that more people are expected to attend next year when it will be 610 years since Hus was burned at the stake. July 6 has been a public holiday in the Czech calendar since 1990.

Dutch politician Geert Wilders' far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) is set to join the new political alliance Patriots for Europe in the European Parliament (EP), recently formed by right-wing parties from Czechia, Hungary and Austria: Andrej Babiš's ANO party, Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, and the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). In a post on social media site X, Wilders announced the move, wrote that he rejected "illegal migration" and expressed support for Ukraine.

The formation of the Patriots for Europe alliance was announced in Vienna last week by Orban, Babiš, and FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl. Between them, the three founding parties have the minimum number of 23 MEPs required to establish a political group in the European Parliament, but they still need parties from at least four other countries to join them, as the prerequisite also stipulates that an alliance must have MEPs from at least seven EU member states in order to register as an officially recognised parliamentary group.

In addition to Wilders' party, which has six seats in the European Parliament, the far-right Portuguese Chega party and the Spanish Vox party have also said they will join, meaning Patriots for Europe have so far secured MEPs from six countries out of the required seven.

President Petr Pavel has joined the Czech head of government Petr Fiala in congratulating Labour leader Keir Starmer on becoming the new UK prime minister. On social media site X on Friday evening, the Czech president said that their two countries were like-minded on many issues and that he looked forward to further advancing bilateral cooperation and enhancing security in Europe and beyond, starting next week at the NATO summit in Washington.

The UK parliamentary elections took place on Thursday, with the Labour landslide victory announced on Friday after 14 years of Conservative rule.

Saturday will see high temperatures reaching above 31 degrees Celsius in some parts of Czechia, with air humidity increasing throughout the day. Most of the country will be hit by thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening that could include torrential rain, hail and 70 kph wind in some places.