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Around 200 ultra-right radicals marched through the west Bohemian city of Pilsen on Saturday afternoon. The scheduled event was delayed due to traffic disruptions caused by strong winds, and attendance was lower than expected. An estimated 500 opponents of the march, mainly anarchists and left-wing activists had gathered in the city to protest against it. The far-right radicals originally planned to hold a demonstration in the city in January but their march was banned by Pilsen mayor Pavel Rödl. However, a court ruled he had overstepped his powers in doing so. The city hall had not banned Saturday’s march but around 1000 police officers were on standby to prevent any clashes between the far-right radicals and the left-wing protestors.

Saturday’s Lidové noviny writes that the Czech-born architect Jan Kaplický, author of the winning design for a new National Library building in Prague, will be entitled to roughly 5 million crowns (300,000 USD) in compensation if he decides to pull out of the project. The Czech National Library which organised an international competition for the design of its new building, says financial compensations are stipulated by the statutes of such international competitions. Mr Kaplický’s futuristic design, nicknamed “the Blob” has been the subject of heated debates over the past year. Among its strongest opponents are Prague mayor Pavel Bém and the Czech president Václav Klaus.

The lawyer of Barbora Škrlová, the Czech woman charged with identity fraud after posing as a 12-year old girl in the Czech Republic and a 13-year old boy in Norway, says he is going to demand that his client should be released from custody in the coming days. He will also demand that her prosecution over alleged torture of Ondřej, the son of her foster mother, should be halted. Ms Škrlová faces up to eight years in prison if found guilty of torturing the boy. He lawyer maintains she did not act on her own will but was forced to perform the acts of torture.

The leadership of the Czech communist party (KSČM) has formally announced that it aligns itself with the spirit and thinking of the notorious February 1948 communist putsch. The announcement came on Friday afternoon, following a meeting of the party’s leadership. A statement issued by the party noted that it was grateful for the “sacrifice and hard work of the generation that formed the first form of socialism.” However, the party also conceded that this early form of what it deemed “socialism” was replete with “inadequacies and tragic deformations.” The party also formally rejects that it undertook an illegal putsch, insisting that the events in 1948 were a “constitutionally sound revolution, in which wide layers of society took part.” The remarks come as the Czech Republic marks 60 years since the beginning of one party rule in Czechoslovakia, and are likely to infuriate many Czechs.