News

A 90-year-old driver travelled around 3.5 kilometres in the wrong direction on the D35 motorway near Olomouc on Thursday, without causing an accident. Police said the man mistakenly entered the motorway at Přáslavice and was stopped within two minutes of the first report from other motorists. He told officers he had become confused while driving from Olomouc to Velká Bystřice. A breath test was negative and he had a valid medical certificate allowing him to drive. Police fined him CZK 5,500 and gave him six penalty points. It was the second similar incident on a Czech motorway this week.

Czech carmakers produced 966,888 passenger cars in the first eight months of this year, up 1.4 percent year-on-year, according to the Czech Automotive Industry Association. Production in July and August alone reached 187,280 vehicles despite scheduled shutdowns and summer holidays. The manufacture of electric vehicles increased significantly, rising by 27 percent year-on-year to 401,600 vehicles. This included 201,700 hybrids, 33,389 plug-in hybrids and 166,511 fully electric cars.

Europe needs to speed up efforts to strengthen its military capabilities despite sharply higher defence spending, according to Seán Clancy, chairman of the EU Military Committee. In an interview with the Czech News Agency, Clancy said Europe was making progress but was catching up after roughly two decades of underinvestment. Priorities include air defence, air-to-air refuelling, drones and artificial intelligence. EU member states spent a combined EUR 415 billion on defence and security last year, equivalent to 2.2 percent of GDP. Clancy said this is expected to rise to 2.4 percent this year.

The Czech Union of Judges has called on Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) to substantiate claims that some judges rule without evidence and that a “mafia” can have people jailed on demand, or refrain from making such statements. Babiš made the remarks at an election rally in Havířov while explaining his changed position on parliamentary immunity. The union said such serious, unsubstantiated accusations undermine public confidence in an independent judiciary. Babiš’s own prosecution in the Stork’s Nest subsidy case is currently suspended because the Chamber of Deputies declined to lift his parliamentary immunity.