• 10/29/2024

    A campaign highlighting the danger of accidents on rail crossings in Czechia, launched a year ago, has only had a minor impact, according to the Czech Railway Administration. Data show that 155 people have died on railway lines since the beginning of the year, down by 10 compared to the same period last year. According to the data collected, risk-taking and inattention was most often to blame. The most critical period was from April to July, when the number of victims exceeded twenty every month. In a number of cases the deaths were suicides. The Czech Railway Administration has been working to reduce the number of barrier-free crossings in Czechia, where drivers are only alerted to an oncoming train by lights.

  • 10/29/2024

    The government wants to push for a significant increase in state pensions for former presidents starting from January, 2025, Czech Television reported. Under the present legislation, ex-presidents  receive a monthly pension of CZK 50,000, and an additional CZK 50,000 to cover expenses for an office or assistant. Labour and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurečka proposes that the presidential pension be increased to CZK 100 000 per month. The lower house of Parliament is to vote on the proposal in the coming weeks.

  • 10/29/2024

    Representatives of the energy company ČEZ on Tuesday signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Rolls-Royce SMR on the development of small modular reactors. According to the ctk news agency ČEZ is acquiring a 20 percent stake in the British company worth several billion crowns. The first modular reactor in the Czech Republic should be built in Temelín in the first half of the 1930s, according to ČEZ's current plans. In the future, they should complement conventional nuclear units and replace coal-fired sources in the domestic energy mix.

  • 10/29/2024

    Putin’s vanguard in Central Europe is likely to expand next year, the US website Politico, wrote, noting that this would be a problem for the EU. The website noted that if the former prime minister Andrej Babiš’s ANO party wins the 2025 general elections in Czechia, he will join Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico, in their pro-Russian rhetoric. Politico said that while the billionaire “political chameleon" Babiš is less ideologically rooted than Orbán or Fico, he has tilted his party firmly to the right and is echoing rhetoric by his counterparts in Hungary and Slovakia. Just like Orbán, Babiš says that if Donald Trump were U.S. president there would be no Russian war in Ukraine, and like Fico, the Czech mogul has previously signaled a preference for reducing support for Ukraine as it resists the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion, Politico wrote.

  • 10/28/2024

    At a ceremony marking Czechoslovak Independence Day on October 28, President Pavel handed out awards and high state distinctions to 56 people for outstanding services to the state. Among those honoured in memoriam were Pope John Paul II, who helped to bring down the communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe, Army General and Legionnaire Sergej Jan Ingr, who was Minister of National Defence in the London government-in-exile and also Ambassador to the Netherlands, and František Moravec, Brigadier General and Legionnaire, Commander of Military Intelligence during World War II and member of the exiled military resistance. Awards also went to London-based architect Eva Jiřičná, choreographer Jiří Kylián, Charter 77 signatory and former Ombudswoman Anna Šabatová, canoeist Martin Doktor and water slalom champion Štěpánka Hilgertová.

  • 10/28/2024

    The founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918 laid the groundwork for a future independent Slovak state, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini told journalists on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of the birth of the former common state of Czechs and Slovaks. Pellegrini said relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which were marred by the Czech government's decision to suspend intergovernmental consultations with Bratislava, should not be disrupted by minor misunderstandings and isolated statements by politicians. Accompanied by the Czech ambassador to Slovakia, Rudolf Jindrák, President Pellegrini on Monday laid wreaths at the memorial of Czechoslovak statehood and the co-founder of Czechoslovakia, Milan Rastislav Štefánik.

  • 10/28/2024

    Tuesday should be partly cloudy to overcast with drizzle in places and day temperatures between 12 and 17 degrees Celsius.

  • 10/28/2024

    Many state institutions in Czechia are traditionally marking the national holiday by opening their normally inaccessible premises to the public. People are able to visit the seat of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate as well as the Office of the Government and Prague City Hall. Petschek's Palace in Politických vězňů Street is also open to the public. The building, where the Gestapo had its main office during the Second World War, is now used by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Agriculture are also giving tours of their premises.

  • 10/28/2024

    According to Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský the time has not yet come to resume intergovernmental consultations with Slovakia. In a debate on TV Prima Mr. Lipavsky said this was a decision that would have to be reached by mutual consent when the time is deemed right. Despite the close relations between the former sister states, there has been a cool in relations in recent months. The cabinet of Prime Minister Petr Fiala suspended intergovernmental consultations with Slovakia in March of this year because of differences of opinion on key foreign policy issues, particularly on the war in Ukraine. Minister Lipavský said that nevertheless relations between the countries are still close, citing his June visit to Bratislava or the joint visits of the Czech and Slovak presidents to Iowa in September.

  • 10/28/2024

    Independence, freedom, democracy are fragile and must be protected and nurtured for future generations," Prime Minister Petr Fiala said at the Vitkov Memorial in Prague on the occasion of Czechoslovak Independence Day. He recalled that Czechoslovakia has changed its borders and its character many times, had been a victim of Nazi and Communist oppression. "Today we are part of the European Union and NATO, we are a safe and rich country. But that is not something to be taken for granted. We have to do everything we can to preserve freedom, democracy and independence for future generations," Fiala stressed.

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