News

The state attorney’s office has ordered that the case of the death of Jan Masaryk be reopened, Právo reported on Wednesday. This follows the recent discovery of a recorded statement from a police officer who was first on the scene when Masaryk’s body was found beneath a window at Prague’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March 1948.

The case will now be investigated by the police’s Office for the Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism, which has looked into it several times in the past.

Jan Masaryk was the only democratic minister remaining in the Czechoslovak government after the Communist takeover of 1948. The official interpretation is that the minister was murdered.

The Czech Olympic Committee says the country’s participation in the Tokyo Olympics next year will be the most expensive ever. The Committee, which is currently discussing its budget for 2020, said the Czech party in Tokyo would number around 200.

The head of the Czech Olympic Committee, Jiří Kejval, said that while almost CZK 50 million had been earmarked three years ago to cover involvement in the 2020 Olympics, up to 20 percent more would now be required due to the increased cost of accommodation.

The leadership of the Communist Party has not distanced itself from shocking statements made by the party’s deputy chair Stanislav Grospič who said in an interview for Czech Radio that the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia had not been an invasion and that the people killed had died mostly in road accidents. His words were condemned by politicians across the board.

Opposition politicians are calling for his resignation as head of the Mandate and Immunity Committee in the lower house.

The head of the Communist Party Vojtěch Filip said after a meeting of the party’s leadership that its members should be more restrained in expressing themselves in public and should make sure their statements do not go counter the official party line.

The ruling ANO party of Prime Minister Andrej Babis would win general elections by a large margin, according to an October poll conducted by the Median agency.

The Pirate Party would come second with 12.5 percent of the vote and the Civic Democrats would place third with 11.5 percent.

The Freedom and Direct Democracy Party would gain 8 percent, while the Social Democrats and Communist Party would get 7.5 and 7 percent respectively.

The only other party which stands a chance of crossing the 5 percent threshold needed to win seats in the lower house is TOP 09 with 6 percent support.