News

A new Czech Centre will be opening in Taiwan from Thursday, June 14, the head of the network Jitka Pánek Jurková announced on Monday at a directors' meeting presenting the organisation's strategy for 2024 - 2027.

She also said that the Czech Centres' new strategy foresees tension in international relations in the coming years and therefore as a platform strengthening public and cultural diplomacy, it wants to contribute to creating an open dialogue and presenting democratic values ​​through artistic creation.

The Czech Centres network is made up of 28 branches designed to promote the Czech Republic abroad and is subsidised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Andrej Babiš's ANO party won this year's European Parliament elections in Czechia with a 26.14 percent share of the vote, gaining seven of the country's 21 seats in the assembly - one more than they got in the last European elections in 2019. Government coalition leaders SPOLU (Together) came second with 22.27 percent and six seats, two fewer than they got last time.

The coalition of Oath and Motorists came third with 10.26 percent, left-wing coalition Stačilo! (Enough) fourth with 9.56 percent, and the Mayors and Independents (STAN) fifth with 8.7 percent. Each of these three parties will be sending two MEPs to represent them in Brussels.

The Pirate Party came in sixth with 6.2 percent, down from 13.95 percent in 2019, and will have only one MEP, losing two of their three seats from last time. Behind them was the coalition of the Tricolour party and Freedom and Direct Democracy, also winning one seat in the assembly and a 5.73 percent share of the vote.

The election results were announced shortly after 11pm on Sunday, once voting had closed in all EU member states. Voter turnout this year was the highest since the Czech Republic joined the EU, with 36.45 percent of eligible voters in Czechia going to the polls.

Czechia will not be competing in kayak cross at the Olympic games in Paris this summer after the Czech hopefuls failed to win a place for the coveted event at the ICF World Cup in Prague. The closest to making it was Tereza Kneblová, who finished fourth in the finals in Prague's Troja district behind Angela Hugo from France, Noemie Fox from Australia and Nikita Setchell from the UK.

Kayak cross, previously known as extreme slalom, will be making its Olympic debut this year in Paris.

The Prague police have stepped up security after detaining a South American man on Saturday evening who is suspected of having been hired by Russia to carry out an arson attack on Czech territory.

Police had been looking for the man since Thursday after he poured gasoline on some buses in the Prague 9 district and attempted unsuccessfully to set them on fire. The man fled the scene and the police spent two days searching for him, even calling on the public on Friday to help with the search. They eventually found and arrested the suspect on Saturday.

According to news site Deník N, security forces were already on high alert due to a series of mysterious arson attacks on infrastructure in Germany and the Baltic states that have occurred in recent months and therefore immediately suspected that this attack could be linked to these other similar cases. After checking the suspect's mobile phone, they discovered the man was a member of a Telegram group in which arson attacks were being discussed. The Czech secret service suspects Russia of being behind the attempted attack and are now investigating the case.