• 11/27/2023

    Over 70 percent of Czech elementary schools, secondary schools and kindergartens are taking part in a one-day warning strike on Monday calling for higher funding for education and other changes. While some schools taking part will remain completely closed, others will be offering only partial services.

    According to the school unions, the funds earmarked for next year will not allow schools to maintain the present quality of education, since they will be forced to lay off both teachers and assistants in order to maintain the present level of salaries.

    Czech Education Minister Mikuláš Bek apologized to parents on Sunday evening for the fact that they and their children had become hostages in a dispute between the government, unions and strikers. He said none of the possible changes in the education system would lead to a deterioration in the quality of education.

    Meanwhile, nurses and other medical personnel are also set to hold a strike on Monday against austerity measures implemented by the Czech government and so are hundreds of other firms in the industrial sector, including employees of carmaker Škoda Auto.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 11/26/2023

    Monday will be mostly overcast with occasional snow showers and day temperatures ranging between -1 and 3 degrees Celsius.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 11/26/2023

    Věra Čepelová, one of the last survivors of the Lidice massacre, died on Sunday at the age of 88. Mrs. Čepelová, née Vokatá, was one of the nine Lidice children selected by the Nazis for re-education. She was sent to a German family where she was renamed Vera Melnik.

    In 1946 she was discovered thanks to the activities of the Czechoslovak repatriation committee and in September of the same year she returned to Czechoslovakia. She met with her mother, who survived the Ravensbrück concentration camp, and in 1951 they moved to a new house in Lidice, where Věra has spent the rest of her life.

    The small central Bohemian village of Lidice was razed to the ground by the Nazis on June 10, 1942, in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. The men were shot and the women and children were sent to concentration camps. The site of the tragedy is now a national memorial.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 11/26/2023

    The opposition ANO party would have come first in general elections in Czechia in November, suggests a STEM poll for the TV station CNN Prima News published on Sunday. The main opposition party would have taken 33.2 percent of the vote.

    Freedom and Direct Democracy placed second in the poll with 12 percent, ahead of the third-placed Civic Democrats on 11.6 percent, the survey indicates.

    The Pirate Party would come fourth with 11.4 percent, followed by the Mayors with 6.4 percent and TOP09 with 5.2 percent. The Social Democrats (SOCDEM) and the Christian Democrats wouldn’t reach the five percent threshold needed to win seats in the Czech Chamber of Deputies.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 11/26/2023

    A green jacket belonging to the late president Václav Havel sold for more than CZK 2.7 million at an auction at Prague’s Žofín Palace on Sunday. The late dissident and playwright wore the jacket when addressing the crowd on Wenceslas Square on November 21, 1989. Its starting price was CZK 200,000.

    The auction also included two paintings by Havel and a handwritten letter from February 1989, when he was sentenced to nine months in prison for participating in a protest during the anniversary of Jan Palach’s self-immolation. The money raised in the auction will go towards the reconstruction of the Lucerna Palace in Prague.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 11/26/2023

    The victims of Saturday’s plane crash in Upper Austria are most likely Czechs, the Austrian police announced in a press release on Sunday. It also said the identities of the four dead - two men and two women - are still being verified in cooperation with the Czech authorities.

    The single-engine plane flying from the Central Bohemian town of Příbram to Croatia crashed into the Kasberg Mountain in Upper Austria on Saturday afternoon. Police investigation into the cause of the accident is underway.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 11/26/2023

    The government has complied with the request of dissident Jiří Gruntorád, who has gone on a hunger strike over low pensions for ex-dissidents, and revoked its resolution signing up to the tradition of the Charter 77 struggle for human rights and democracy.

    Gruntorád, a Charter 77 signatory, has been on the strike since November 17 in protest of the treatment former dissidents were receiving under the management of Labour and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurečka. He was later joined by another ex-dissident, John Bok.

    Mr. Gruntorád initially demanded the minister’s resignation, however he later said he would end the hunger strike if the government repeals the resolution.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 11/26/2023

    Legendary Czech footballer Petr Čech has made his debut in the British Ice Hockey League. The former Chelsea and Arsenal goalkeeper played for the defending champions Belfast Giants, contributing to a 5-1 victory against Glasgow Clan.

    The 41-year-old Cech, who is considered as one of the best goalkeepers of the modern era, has joined ice hockey champions Belfast Giants on loan from Oxford City Stars as temporary emergency cover.

    The Champions League winner was introduced by coach Ada Keefe for the final five minutes of the game, after a packed 6000-strong crowd started chanting ‘We Want Čech.’

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 11/25/2023

    The Christmas tree that will adorn Prague’s Old Town Square during the festive season, was felled by national champion lumberjack Jiří Vorlíček in the north Bohemian village of Pertoltice pod Ralskem on Saturday.

    The 22-metre spruce, which is around 50 years old, will be lit on Saturday, December 2, marking the launch of the city’s Christmas markets, and remain in place until January 6.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 11/25/2023

    Sunday will be partly cloudy with occasional snow showers and day temperatures between -1 and -5 degrees Celsius.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková

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