News

Shareholders in the Czech majority state-owned energy giant CEZ have approved the process of hiving off the non-power generation side of the company, Czech Television reported. This will be part of a broader restructuring and analysts say the split is the first step toward the planned nationalisation of CEZ by the current government.

The plan was approved by shareholders, including the government, at an annual general meeting.

The nationalisation of CEZ is one of the stated goals of the current government, which justifies it by citing the need to give the company more freedom to invest. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has previously stated that the cabinet aims to complete the process of taking full control of CEZ by the end of the current legislative term in 2029 at the latest.

Representatives of the coalition government of ANO, Freedom and Direct Democracy and the Motorists have agreed that for a referendum to be valid and binding, it will require the approval of at least 35 percent of all eligible voters. This was announced to journalists by Tomio Okamura, chairman of Freedom and Direct Democracy and lower house speaker.

The coalition parties had previously agreed on other parameters of a draft constitutional bill on general referendums. The coalition will now submit the proposal to the legislative process.

To pass a constitutional bill, approval is required from a three-fifths majority of all members of the Chamber of Deputies and a three-fifths majority of senators present in the upper house. The coalition has 108 seats in the 200-seat lower house.

The Czech Republic is to extradite 55-year-old German transgender right-wing extremist Marla Svenja Liebich to Germany, where she is to begin serving a prison sentence. The decision was made by the Regional Court in Plzeň on Monday. Liebich was originally convicted by German courts as Sven Liebich; she has legally changed her gender and now identifies as a woman. She was arrested on April 9 near Aš in the Cheb region on the basis of a European arrest warrant.

German media reported that Liebich as formerly a member of the neo-Nazi group called Blood and Honour.

In 2023 Liebich was sentenced by a German court to a total of one year and six months in prison for extreme right incitement to hatred, defamation and insult.

It should be mainly overcast in Czechia on Tuesday, with an average high temperature of 23 degrees Celsius. More cloudy weather, and some rain, are expected on the following days.