News

The Ministry of Culture has announced an open competition for the position of National Library director. The previous director, Martin Kocanda, was removed from office in July due to alleged irregularities in an e-library project partly subsidised by European funds.

The selection committee is asking applicants to present a concept for developing the National Library, including their list of priorities over the next three years. The selection committee will choose three finalists for by Minister of Culture Lubomír Zaorálek to choose from.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism has advised its nationals to avoid travel to the Czech Republic, the China Daily newspaper reports. Beijing issued the travel advisory on Friday due to an uptick in Covid-19 cases.

According to the Czech Tourism agency, last year 620,000 Chinese tourists visited this country, accounting for over 5 percent of all foreign visitors. The travel advisory comes amidst growing bilateral tensions since the visit to Taiwan by Czech Senate speaker Miloš Vystrčil.

Constitutional Court Judge Kateřina Šimáčková will apply to become the next Czech representative at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, Lidovky.cz reports. If successful, she would replace the current Czech judge, Aleš Pejchal when his term expires in November 2021.

Šimáčková, 53, was appointed to a 10-year term as a Constitutional Court judge in August 2013 and previously served as a Supreme Administrative Court judge. She told Lidovky.cz she considers the idea of a Europe united by respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law to be among the most valuable ideas worth working for.

More than half of Czechs favour the government’s move to abolish the so-called “super gross” wage as the base for calculating employee income tax, a Median poll conducted for Czech Radio shows.

The super gross wage is the sum of an employee’s gross wage plus social and health insurance premiums. In its place, as of January 2021 the government plans to introduce a progressive tax rate of 15 percent for annual income of up to 1.5 million crowns and 24 percent for income above this amount.

According to the Median survey, 56 percent of respondents welcome its abolishment, 33 percent oppose it and 11 percent have no opinion on the subject. People with a university education and voters of centre-right parties are most opposed to abolishing the super gross wage, the poll found.

Previous attempts to abolish the super gross wage failed because of the loss to state revenues. The government has argued its cancellation will boost consumer spending and help rev up the economy post-coronavirus.