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MEP Alexandr Vondra says that Hungary under Viktor Orban remains a democratic country and that Sunday’s elections are free. He made the comment in a Czech Television debate show. Pavel Telička, a former MEP, also rejected the idea that Hungary had an authoritarian regime, though he said its election campaign had not been entirely fair.

Both politicians said Peter Magyar, who is challenging Mr. Orban, was likely to win and would improve relations between Budapest and the European Union.

The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed regret about comments made by President Petr Pavel about the US head of state, Donald Trump. In a statement issued on Sunday, the ministry said Mr. Pavel’s views did not represent the official position of the Czech government.

Mr. Pavel said recently that Mr. Trump had done more to undermine NATO’s credibility in weeks that Russia’s Vladimir Putin had in several years.

The minister of foreign affairs, Petr Macinka, has had a number of clashes with the Czech president, who refused to appoint his party colleague Filip Turek to a ministerial post.

The leader of coalition party Freedom and Direct Democracy, Tomio Okamura, says one solution to high energy and fuel costs would be to take gas and oil from Russia. Speaking to TV Nova, Mr. Okamura – who is also speaker of the lower house – said this would allow Czechia to diversify its sources once again and to guarantee its energy security.

This call has been rejected by members of the previous government, who ended Czech dependency on imports from Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ex-PM Petr Fiala called on current government head Andrej Babiš to disown talk of such “collaborationist” cooperation with Moscow.

Government leaders ANO would have come first in elections at the turn of this month with 34 percent of the vote, suggests a poll conducted by the Kantar agency for Czech Television. The Mayors would have come second on 15.5 percent, just head of another opposition party, the Civic Democrats, on 15 percent, the survey indicates.

The Pirates would have received 9.5 percent. Freedom and Direct Democracy were on 6.5 percent, while another coalition party, the Motorists, were on 5 percent, meaning they would have reached the threshold for entry into the lower house.