News

Firefighters were called to the scene as smoke started emanating from a building near Prague's historic Old Town Square on Monday afternoon. The Prague fire service wrote on social media site X that the fire had started in the roof of the building in Celetná Street. No one was injured but about twenty people were evacuated.

There were 1,205 new registered cases of whooping cough in Czechia last week, the lowest weekly number in almost two months, according to the latest figures from the State Health Institute. Experts say that the spread of the infection among the Czech population is waning.

So far this year there have been 18,960 registered cases of whooping cough in Czechia, the most in 65 years. There were only a mere 18 more cases in 1959, the year after the vaccination programme against the disease began, but that was over the course of the entire calendar year.

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.