• Czech foreign minister welcomes Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s bid to join NATO
    01/26/2024

    Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský has welcomed Turkey's decision to approve Sweden's bid to join NATO, ending months of delays and leaving only Hungary standing in the way of Sweden’s membership in the military alliance. “I welcome President Erdogan's decision to open NATO’s doors to another ally and I believe we will soon be able to convince the last remaining NATO partner that a stronger alliance is in everyone's interest," Mr. Lipavský said.

    Turkey's general assembly, where President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling alliance holds a majority, voted 287-55 to approve the application that Sweden first made in 2022 to bolster its security in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the decision adding "I now count on Hungary to complete its national ratification as soon as possible."
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Postal vote bill passes first reading in lower house
    01/25/2024

    The lower house of Czech parliament voted on Thursday afternoon to support a government coalition proposal to allow postal voting in elections for Czechs living abroad in the bill's first reading. The opposition's proposals to reject the amendment or return it to the government for redrafting were both rejected. It will now go to the Constitutional-Legal and Foreign Affairs Committees for discussion.

    The debate over postal voting lasted for six days due to filibustering by the opposition, taking approximately 63.5 hours. The coalition eventually set a fixed time of 3pm on Thursday for voting to take place.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Teacher who cast doubt on Russian war crimes acquitted second time
    01/25/2024

    The Prague 6 municipal court has once again acquitted the primary school teacher Martina Bednářová of denying war crimes and genocide in a lesson in early April 2022, a few weeks after Russia launched its war on Ukraine. The court ruled, as it had previously last June, that she could not be found guilty of a criminal act for a personal opinion. The judge said that although the teacher's statements were false, misleading, and highly controversial, they did not have consequences for the pupils' mental health. The public prosecutor immediately appealed against the decision.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Vohralíková to step down as president’s office chief
    01/25/2024

    Jana Vohralíková, the head of the president’s office who took up her position last March at the same time as President Petr Pavel, has announced that she will be stepping down from the role on 15 February. She cited the pressure and social responsibilities associated with the position as reasons for her departure. Her replacement will be the director of the Central European branch of the Aspen Institute, Milan Vašina.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • High wind warning extended until Saturday morning for parts of Czechia
    01/25/2024

    The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute has extended its warning of high winds to Friday evening, including overnight to Saturday. The warning will come into effect again from 8pm on Friday until Saturday morning for the Pardubice region and parts of the Vysočina, South Bohemian, South Moravian, Olomouc and Moravian-Silesian regions.

    On Thursday afternoon and evening, the north-west of Moravia and Silesia is facing west to north-westerly winds with gusts of up to 70 kilometers per hour. The wind will die down a little during the day on Friday, but will increase again in approximately the same area on Friday evening.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Czechia's public finance deficit predicted to shrink this year
    01/25/2024

    Czechia's public finance deficit should shrink to 2.2 percent of GDP this year, down from last year's 3.6 percent, the Finance Ministry revealed on Thursday. However, the overall public debt will increase to 45.6 percent of GDP from last year's 43.7 percent, according to the forecast. Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura applauded the fact that Czechia would no longer rank among the countries with the fastest-growing debt in the EU.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Weather forecast
    01/25/2024

    Friday should be mostly overcast with a chance of rain in the late afternoon and evening. Temperatures are expected to range between 1 and 6 degrees Celsius.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • PM: some Senators in too much of a hurry to ratify Istanbul Convention
    01/25/2024

    The Istanbul Convention would have had a better chance of being adopted if there had been a more thorough and wider societal debate, Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Czech tabloid Blesk on Thursday. In his opinion, some of the government coalition partners were in too much of a hurry to get it ratified, and it was not approved in the Senate on Wednesday evening by a very narrow margin, only two votes short of adoption.

    The Christian Democrats voted overwhelmingly against ratifying the convention, the Pirates and Mayors and Independents parties were mostly in favour, while the prime minister's own Civic Democrat party was divided.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Court reopens case of teacher who cast doubt on Russian war crimes
    01/25/2024

    The Prague 6 municipal court has again begun hearing the case of a teacher who cast doubt on Russian war crimes in Ukraine during a lesson. The same court acquitted Martina Bednářová of denying genocide last June, saying she could not be found judged over an opinion. However, a court appeals panel threw out that ruling in the autumn.

    Weeks after Russia launched its war on Ukraine the teacher told eighth grade students that its actions were justifiable and that nothing was happening in Kyiv. Some students recorded her comments.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czech Senate votes against Istanbul Convention
    01/25/2024

    The Czech Senate has narrowly failed to approve the so-called Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Only 34 of the 71 senators present for Wednesday night’s vote were in favour of its ratification, two votes short of adoption. The vote followed seven hours of often intense debate.

    Czechia will thus be among the minority of European states that have signed but not ratified the convention.

    The Chamber of Deputies was also meant to vote on the document. However, in view of the Senate's position it is not now expected to discuss it, the Czech News Agency said.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

Pages