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Roma rights activists have criticised statements by the chairman of the Christian Democrats, Jiří Čunek, who said Romany family groups should be broken up in order to weaken family ties which he said prevented them from integrating. Speaking ahead of a party conference in Prague, he also said that traditional Romany culture was not compatible with modern society. Zdeněk Ryšavý of the group Romea said Mr Čunek had made the comments in an effort to increase his fading popularity.

Jiří Čunek won a seat in the Senate after moving Romany rent defaulters out of the centre of the town of Vsetín, where he was mayor. The controversial politician is demanding to be reinstated as deputy prime minister and minister for regional development, after an investigation into allegations he accepted bribes at that time was dropped. A poll this week suggested Mr Čunek’s popularity was at a record low.

The Czech woman at the centre of a bizarre case of identity fraud has been interviewed by psychiatrists for the first time. Barbora Škrlová is in custody in Brno, after being detained in Norway, where she had attended school in the guise of a 13-year-old boy. The diminutive 33-year-old was wanted in the Czech Republic, where she had previously posed as a 13-year-old girl, in connection with an investigation into an apparent child abuse ring. Ms Škrlová’s lawyer said he would petition on Monday to have her released from custody, which he said was a very stressful environment. The strange case has attracted a great deal of attention in the Czech Republic and internationally.

Memorial services were held on Saturday at the grave of Jan Palach at Prague’s Olšanské hřbitovy cemetery and in the town of Všetaty, where he lived. Palach set himself on fire at the top of Wenceslas Square on January 16, 1969, in protest at the Soviet invasion of 1968. He died three days later and his funeral became a major protest against the occupation.

The recent lifting of controls on the Czech-German border has led to “a dramatic rise” in the number of cases of illegal migrants crossing the border, the German daily Bild has written, citing statistics by the German police which have yet to be officially published. Internal border controls were lifted in late December when the Czech Republic joined the Schengen zone. According to Bild, more than 600 illegal migrants have been detained in German-Czech border areas in recent weeks alone. By comparison, the daily writes, 480 or so illegal migrants were detained along the German borders with Poland and the Czech Republic during the entire first half of 2007. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek recently discussed the issue of illegal migration with his Austrian counterpart; both sides in those talks pledged more would have to be done to lessen the problem.