News

For almost half of Czechs the EU represents the freedom to travel, study, and work, the results of a new Eurobarometer poll suggest. The numbers released by the European Commission on Monday at the same time showed that Czechs were more critical of the European Union than the European average. Fifty-five percent said they considered themselves EU citizens, placing 22nd in the 28-member union. According to the poll, Czechs posted higher than the EU average when it came to trust in European institutions: 45 percent expressed trust in the European Parliament (compared to the EU average of 39) and 42 percent the European Commission (compared to the European average of 32 percent).

Jaroslav Krejči, a respected sociologist, historian and economist and professor emeritus at Lancaster University, died on Sunday at the age of 98. The news was confirmed by Hana Katrňáková of Masaryk University in Brno. Krejči, whose father was infamously premier of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during WW II, was a member of the anti-Nazi resistance. After the war, in Stalinist Czechoslovakia, he was found guilty of treason and received a 10-year sentence. Mr Krejči was released under an amnesty in 1960 and, together with his wife, left Czechoslovakia for Great Britain in 1968. In the 1970s he was named professor at Lancaster University, where he focussed on the macrosociological interpretation of history and civilisation.

The police are searching for a motorist who managed to elude officers during a chase outside Prague on Monday, the spokesman for the force Tomáš Hulan has revealed. The driver was stopped by police at the northeast edge of the capital shortly after 1 PM. Instead of heeding the warning, he sped off in an oncoming lane, at points up to 200 kilometres per hour, the police said. The motorist then drove onto the R10 in the direction of Mladá Boleslav, managing to lose the police in pursuit. A police helicopter found the suspect vehicle abandoned near a forest two kiometres on. Police, complete with search dogs, were sent out but without success.

The Czech Republic clinched its fifth medal at the Winter Olympic Games on Monday through Gabriela Soukalová, who won silver in the biathlon women’s 12.5 kilometre mass start. Soukalová finished with a time of 35:45.8, some twenty seconds behind Belarusian Darya Domracheva. Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff was third. Prior to Monday’s event, Soukalová twice finished just outside the medals at this year’s Winter Games.