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02/27/2020
Former Czechoslovak and Czech president Václav Havel has been posthumously recognised as a member of the so-called “Third Resistence“ (Třetí odboj) by the Ministry of Defence, which issued a corresponding certificate on Wednesday. The document states that Havel fought against Communist power all his life regardless of his own freedom.
Havel was an active campaigner for human rights in Communist Czechoslovakia since the 1960s and spent several years in prison due to his actions and beliefs.
The Third Resistance is a term used for those who resisted Communist rule especially during the early years after the party’s takeover of the state in 1948. However, it continued until 1989.
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02/26/2020
Czech police have arrested a 41-year-old man suspected of secretly cutting and collecting strands of women’s’ hair in Prague’s trams. The man was caught on Prague 4’s Budějovická street with scissors and hair strands on him.
He has since admitted that he did commit the acts, some 25 in total, and has given other hair strands that he kept at home over to the police.
Police spokeswoman Hana Křížová says he gave no rational explanation for why he cut the hair. He could face up to two years in jail for disorderly conduct.
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02/26/2020
The Czech Republic will do its outmost within the EU to begin negotiation talks with Northern Macedonia and Albania about their entry into the union next month, Foreign Minister Tomas Petříček said on Wednesday following a meeting with his counterpart from Northern Macedonia Nikola Dimitrov.
Mr Petříček went on to stress that both countries have fulfilled the necessary conditions and that further delay is therefore unwarranted.
Negotiations were originally set to take place already in October last year, but were delayed until March. Some countries, such as France, Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands, are reserved in the matter of Balkan succession and the Czech Foreign Ministry is trying to change that Mr Petricek said.
There are hopes that Thursday’s Visegrad Four states’ negotiations with those of the Western Balkans, which are being attended by the European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Olivér Várhelyi could help the process. Northern Macedonia’s accession talks into the EU were blocked for many years by Greece, due to a dispute about the formers name.
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02/26/2020
The long term outlook for the Czech Republic’s public finances is worsening due to the country’s population ageing, the European Commission warns in its latest socio-economic analysis of the country released on Wednesday. The study says there have been insufficient steps towards ensuring long-term budget sustainability in the Czech health and pension systems.
On the other hand, the European Commission analysis says that the country’s labour market remains strong, with wage growth supporting consumer expenditure being the main engine of economic growth. However, an insufficient amount of labour and higher salary expenses could slow down growth.
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02/26/2020
Temperatures are set to range between 3 to 7 degrees Celsius on Thursday, with heavy clouds and snowfall expected in Northern Bohemia and parts of Moravia and Silesia.
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02/26/2020
Archaeologists have announced the discovery of three skeletons believed to be around 1,000 years old in the foundations of Břeclav Castle in South Moravia. The skeletons were found in close proximity to each other and in extreme positions, which archaeologists hypothesise could mean that they had been tied together and died a violent death, possibly related to a pagan ritual.
Archaeologist Miroslav Dejmal told Czech Television that this is a rare discovery. Although the area had been converted to Christianity by around 1050, some pagan practices were retained for a long time, he said.
The team of archaeologists now wants to find out further details about the skeletons, including their gender, age and whether they were related.
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02/26/2020
Two high ranking civil servants, arrested as suspects, during Monday’s police raid at the Ministry of Labour and Social affairs have been released from custody, but charges against them remain, Czech Television reports.
Deputy Minister Jan Baláč and the head of the ministry’s cybersecurity department Karel Macek are both suspected of manipulating public tenders and have been suspended.
Monday’s police raid saw the police gather evidence at the ministry for a case concerned with a contract for new information systems at the labour ministry worth some CZK 250 million, according to news site Lidovky.cz. Both men could face up to 12 years in jail if found guilty.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis says he will demand an explanation on the circumstances that led to the raid from Labour Minister Jana Maláčová.
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02/26/2020
Czech hospitals will need to establish a four month supply of facemasks in light of the threat from the coronavirus known as COVID-19, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said on Wednesday.
The Czech prime minister reiterated that the country has no confirmed cases of the virus yet and said the state was prepared to handle the side effects if quarantine was instituted in any Czech city. He went on to say that a military hospital in Tichonín can be converted into a specialised hospital to handle COVID-19 patients within 12 hours if the situation demanded it and that the government has concrete plans on how to proceed in case of an outbreak and that these will be further discussed at Monday’s State Security Council meeting.
COVID-19 cases have been detected in neighbouring Austria and Germany. Three Czechs are currently in quarantine after returning from foreign destinations where COVID-19 was detected.
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02/26/2020
A group of European MEPs has arrived in the Czech Republic with the mission to investigate the facts surrounding Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’ alleged conflict of interest and find out how Czech authorities deal with money from EU funds.
The delegation, led by the European Parliament’s Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control Monika Hohlmeier, will be meeting with representatives from relevant Czech ministries as well as the head of the Supreme Audit Office until Friday. The MEPs earlier request to meet with Mr Babiš himself was declined by the Czech prime minister, who said it would not correspond to the professional nature of the delegation's visit.
Mr Babiš was found to still be in indirect control over his former business empire Agrofert through trust funds by an audit conducted on behalf of the European Commission last year.
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02/26/2020
Czech Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček says all constitutional officials should agree on the country’s official stance towards a January letter from the Chinese Embassy which warned Prague China could harm Czech business interests if a planned Senate trip to Taiwan went ahead.
After meeting with Senate Chair Miloš Vystrčil on Wednesday, Mr Petříček said that he will prepare a draft statement which will then be discussed with other constitutional officials in March. Thus far, some officials have condemned the letter, while others have chosen not to comment.
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be reunified with the mainland one day and therefore protested vehemently in the letter to what it saw as an “extremely inappropriate” trip that “carries the signs of an official visit”.
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