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The Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček summoned the Belarusian ambassador to Prague, Valery Kurdyukov, on Wednesday in order to highlight his country’s disagreement with the events surrounding last week’s presidential election in Belarus and the subsequent violent crackdown on opposition protestors. The ministry also dismissed the statement by President Lukashenko that the Czech Republic is organising demonstrations in Belarus, Mr. Petříček tweeted on Thursday.

President Lukashenko achieved a landslide victory in the elections according to official results. However, the opposition says the vote count was rigged and its protesters were subsequently crushed by police action during which at least one protestor died. The Belarusian president also accused the Czech Republic of being one of the states from which the initial protests on Sunday were organised.

The currently ruling ANO party, led by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, would win an election into the Chamber of Deputies with 29 percent of the vote, according to a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CVVM) conducted in July. The opposition Pirate Party would come in second with 14.5 percent of the vote, followed by the Civic Democrats who would receive 12 percent. In total, eight parties would get into the lower-house.

The Social Democrats, who are ANO’s current coalition partner, would receive 9.5 percent of the vote, slightly less than when measured in June. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia would be voted by 7.5 percent of the electorate and the Christian Democrats by 6.5 percent. CVVM measured that the Freedom and Direct Democracy movement would receive 6 percent and the Mayors and Independents would scrape into the Chamber of Deputies with 5.5 percent.

The TOP 09 party would not be able to cross the 5 percent threshold to remain in the lower-house, according to the poll, as they would receive just 3.5 percent of the vote.

Saturday will see the end of the Prague City Hall ban on vehicles serving alcohol to tourists while driving through the capital’s centre. The “beer bikes”, as these devices are commonly referred to, were banned earlier this year. However, the decision had to be cancelled after a court ruling stated that the ban is not within the competencies of City Hall, but has to be made by the respective road authorities in individual Prague districts.

Deputy Mayor Adam Schienherr has sent a letter to Prague districts asking them to approve the cancellation of beer bikes on class I roads themselves in cooperation with City Hall.

The Senate of the Czech Republic voted in favour of a resolution that condemns the police crackdown on Belarusian protesters. The document, shared by Senate Speaker Miloš Vystrčil states that the police reaction is a “violent and evidently disproportionate” crackdown on Belarusian citizens who protested against “an undemocratic and unfair election”.

The Senate also called on the Czech government to “resolutely condemn the violence of President Lukashenko’s regime and conduct all possible steps to support civil freedoms in Belarus”.