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With a 66.9 percent downturn in year-on-year revenue, Prague hotels fared second worst among all European cities after Rome during the worst phase of the coronavirus crisis, according to a survey conducted by consulting firm Cushman and Wakefield. Prague hotels also came in second worst after Bratislava in terms of the amount of occupied rooms in May, when respondents from the Czech capital said they only had 2.5 percent of rooms filled.

The survey showed that 79 percent of hotels plan to be open during the summer months, with 97 percent to be open from September onwards. Asked about the support from the state they would want, 83 percent of Czech hoteliers said contributions to salary payments and 79 percent said tax exemptions. The third most popular measure was investment into tourism, which was supported by 72 percent of respondents.

Miroslav Kalousek of the TOP 09 party, who is one of the best known politicians in the Czech Republic and known for his repeated clashes with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, will not run in the upcoming 2021 elections into the Chamber of Deputies, he said on Czech Television on Sunday.

Mr Kalousek subsequently told news site iDnes.cz that this does not mean he will be retreating from politics altogether, or that he will leave his current party. Instead, he wants to focus on talking to people “on the ground” and try to bring about a joint approach by traditional political parties, Mr Kalousek said.

Mirolsav Kalousek has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies since 1998 and was finance minister from 2007 to 2008 and then again from 2010 to 2013.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s ANO party retained its polling dominance in June placing first with a hypothetical 32 percent percent of the vote according to a newly released poll by the Kantar CZ agency conducted for Czech Television. The opposition Pirate Party placed second with 18 percent of the vote, a 7 percent increase compared to the previous month. They are followed by the Civic Democrats in third place with 13 percent.

The top three are far ahead of the other parties that have a chance of breaching the 5 percent voting threshold to get into the Chamber of Deputies. The Mayors and Independents would receive 6 percent of the vote, followed by the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, TOP 09 and the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party who all polled at 5.5 percent. The coalition Social Democrats received 5 percent.

The only party currently in the Czech lower-house not to poll at 5 percent or more were the Christian Democrats, who would receive 4.5 percent of the vote according to Kantar.cz. The right-wing Tricolour party increased its polling slightly to reach 3 percent of the hypothetical vote.

Czech mixed martial arts fighter Jiří Procházka saw his first fight in the Ultimate Fighting Champion (UFC) competition end in victory on Sunday. In a fight against Switzerlands Volkan Oedzemir in Abu Dhabi’s UFC Fight Island, Prochazka knocked out his opponent in the second round by knockout.

Despite his swift victory, Procházka, whose ring nickname is “Denisa”, received many punches from Oedzemir in the first round and said he had committed many mistakes which he wants to work on in the post-match breakdown.

UFC is the most prestigious mixed martial arts competition in the world and Procházka has said he intends to fight for the title.