News

There is growing interest among Czech students in the Erasmus student exchange program.

Data provided by the organizers shows a ten percent increase in the number of applications, with around 8,000 Czech students expected to go abroad for student exchange stays in the coming academic year.

The most sought after destinations are Germany, Spain and Great Britain.

Over 100,000 Czech students have benefitted from the Erasmus program since it was introduced twenty years ago.

Several dozen environmental activists engaged in a symbolic blockade of the coal power plant Chvaletice in north-east Bohemia to protest against an exemption that will allow it to remain in operation, despite the fact that it does not comply with all EU environment norms.

The three-day peaceful protest outside the plant’s gates ended on Friday. Protesters did not try to disrupt the plant’s operation allowing workers and traffic free passage. They argue that the plant is a serious polluter in the region and was to have closed in 2016.

The plant’s spokeswoman said on Friday that it was undergoing a modernization worth billions of crowns and already fulfilled 23 out of 25 strict EU requirements.

The Czech Foreign Ministry registered a heightened interest in visas to the Czech Republic last year, receiving over 722,000 requests overall. The biggest interest was in so-called Schengen visas which give foreign visitors 90 days of free movement around Schengen.

The number of requests for long-term or permanent residence in the country doubled to 37,000 in 2018, according to Foreign Ministry sources.

Culture Minister Antonín Staněk has lashed out against Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamáček, saying on Twitter that the party leader had betrayed him by asking him to resign in connection with public protests to the sacking of two heads of cultural institutions.

Staněk wrote on Twitter that Hamáček had gone back on his word, driven by fear and weakness. The Social Democratic Party’s demand for a change of guard at the culture ministry has brought the government to the brink of collapse after President Zeman refused to dismiss Staněk and appoint the party’s new nominee for the post.

The president has called a meeting on July 12th at which he hopes to effect a reconciliation, but the Social Democrats have said that unless their condition is met they will walk out of the government.