News

Two-thirds of Czechs are satisfied with Czechia’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, according to the results of a survey published by the Centre for Public Opinion Research of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Compared to last spring this represents a slight decrease, but the proportion of those satisfied remains higher than in previous years. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they were not happy with the country's membership in NATO, on the argument that membership in the alliance restricted the country's sovereignty. Over 70 percent of Czechs are convinced NATO is essential to global security and half of the respondents said it is a guarantee of the country’s independence.

Some Czech regions complain that the system according to which tax revenues are distributed from state coffers is unfair and are calling for it to be revised. The Central Bohemia Region authorities want to submit an amendment to the law to the lower house in which the present criteria would be replaced by a system that takes into account demographic changes, the structure of the region or the length of roads that it needs to maintain. Under the present legislation, which has been in place since the year 2,000, tax revenues are allocated as a set percentage of the overall revenue raised. The Central Bohemian region says that if the system is not amended it will file a complaint about it to the Constitutional Court. The Pardubice Region and the Zlín Region support the call.

In an internal vote, members of the Pirate Party have called on its representatives in the governing coalition to demand the immediate removal of Pavel Blažek of the Civic Democrats as justice minister. The vote was convened after reports of a meeting between the minister and Martin Nejedlý, a close associate of ex-president Miloš Zeman with ties to Russia.

The Pirates also voted to call on leader Ivan Bartoš to discuss the matter with the Mayors party, with which the Pirates stood in the last elections.

The prime minister, Petr Fiala of the Civic Democrats, says ministers are chosen by whichever party controls a particular ministry.

The head of the Mayors and Independents Party, Vít Rakušan, responded by saying the decision was in the hands of the Civic Democrats.

Students from a German secondary school are to perform the children’s opera Brundibár at the former Terezín ghetto in Bohemia, 80 years after it was first staged by Jewish inmates there during World War II, a spokesperson for the Terezín Memorial said on Monday. Interest in the event is great and few spaces remain for the event at the Magdeburg Barracks.

Brundibár, which was written by Hans Krása, was first performed on September 23, 1943.

The school company and orchestra from Germany’s Wülfrath have already staged the children’s opera elsewhere, including in Israel with survivor Zvi Cohen, who took part in it in Terezín during the Holocaust.