News

Saturday should be partly cloudy to overcast with day temperatures between 7 and 11 degrees Celsius.

The Czech extremist scene continues to be dominated by anti-establishment groups, whose representatives do not respect state institutions, often admire the Putin regime, and spread false or misleading information and conspiracy theories, according to the Czech Interior Ministry's report on extremism for the second half of last year, published on Friday. More recently, disputes have emerged between members of the Romany and Ukrainian communities over real and fictional incidents, which some disinformers exploit on social media. The police registered close to 200 hate crimes last year, and prosecuted 98 people, mostly for violence against a group of people.

The opposition ANO party has called for an extraordinary meeting of the Czech Chamber of Deputies over Prime Minister Petr Fiala's undeclared property share in the Enterprise Credit Union (PDZ). The newspaper Seznam Zprávy first reported on the possible conflict of interest, saying that Fiala could be fined CZK 50,000 under the Conflict of Interest Act.

The prime minister explained himself by saying that he held a current account with PDZ and did not realise that this also meant holding a property share. He told journalists in Brussels on Thursday, where he was participating in an EU summit, that he thinks this explanation is sufficient, as he had already explained everything to the public and showed journalists the relevant bank statements. He added that the fact ANO was making something out of nothing was a demonstration of their lack of real policies and ability to focus on important matters.

The Czech police collected almost twice as much money in fines issued for driving offences this January as they did during the same month last year, iRozhlas.cz reports. A new points system that was introduced this year to try to deter drivers from committing serious offences on the roads seems not to have had the desired effect so far, the news site suggests, but has instead lined the police coffers. According to preliminary data, the police recorded over 32,000 driving offences in January and collected over CZK 473 million in fines, almost double the amount compared to last January.