News

Police are investigating whether Czech MP Filip Turek committed a traffic offence during a high-speed drive near Prague's Strahov Stadium that was captured on video and recently resurfaced online.

The footage, which has circulated widely following Turek's traffic accident at I. P. Pavlova last week,  shows the Motorists party MP driving dangerously on the winding road below Strahov Stadium. The video dates back to 2021, when Turek took part in a Slovak YouTuber Dávid Matějíček's video featuring a Toyota sports car.

According to police, officers are examining whether Turek's actions amounted to a traffic offence. However, any offence may already be time-barred due to the age of the incident.

The video is not the only recording that appears to show Turek driving recklessly in normal traffic.

Czech President Petr Pavel has vetoed a controversial bill that would overhaul the country's public budget rules, the Presidential Office announced on Tuesday.

The legislation will now return to the Chamber of Deputies, which can override the presidential veto with a majority vote.

In explaining his decision, Pavel said the bill would fundamentally change how the current and future governments manage public finances. He argued it would threaten the long-term sustainability of public finances while weakening parliamentary oversight of public spending in favour of the government.

It is the third time Pavel has returned legislation to Parliament and the first time he has exercised the veto since Prime Minister Andrej Babiš's ANO-led government took office.

Finance Minister Alena Schillerová (ANO) said shortly after the announcement that the governing coalition would override the veto. In a post on X, she argued that without the bill next year's state budget deficit would have to be capped at 150 billion crowns, which she said would "devastate" both the economy and the country's defence capabilities. The government has planned a budget deficit of 310 billion crowns for this year.

The Czech state collected CZK 10.07 billion (€10.07 billion) in road tolls in the first half of the year, up 5.7 percent year-on-year. Foreign hauliers accounted for more than 54 percent of the total, CzechToll spokesperson Miroslav Beneš told the Czech News Agency (ČTK).

Motorway tolls made up 88 percent of the total revenue, with the remainder coming from tolls on designated first-class roads.

A Prague district court has rehabilitated 19 Czech dissidents, including underground figure Ivan Martin Jirous, Charter 77 spokesperson Radim Palouš and co-founder of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS) Dana Němcová, who were repeatedly imprisoned under the communist regime.

The Prague 1 District Court ruled on Monday that the "preventive" detentions—often carried out before public holidays, anniversaries of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia or religious celebrations—were groundless. The ruling, issued 37 to 46 years after the events, also condemned the authorities' treatment of dissidents' families, lawyer Lubomír Müller told the Czech News Agency (ČTK).