News

Czech motorway vignette prices are unlikely to rise automatically from next year. The lower house has approved in the first reading a government bill that would abolish annual indexation of vignette prices.

The opposition criticized the move as populist but failed to block the bill or send it back for redrafting. If adopted, drivers will continue to pay CZK 2,570 for an annual vignette, CZK 480 for a monthly pass, CZK 300 for a 10-day pass and CZK 230 for a one-day pass. Discounts for alternatively powered vehicles would remain in place.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said on Tuesday that Filip Turek (Motorists) should resign as the government's commissioner for climate policy and the Green Deal following Monday's serious traffic accident in central Prague.

Babiš made the statement after new footage emerged showing Turek overtaking a line of vehicles in a lane from which he was not permitted to continue straight. At the intersection, his car collided with a Prague hospital vehicle transporting biological material under emergency conditions, with flashing lights and siren activated. The vehicle flipped over several times, narrowly missing pedestrians. The driver was injured.

Babiš said he had already brought up the matter in a call to Foreign Minister Petr Macinka (Motorists) and told him that if the situation unfolded as it appears in the footage, Mr. Turek should take responsibility and resign from his post as commissioner.

Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka has pledged to strengthen both economic and political cooperation with Israel. Speaking alongside his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, at the opening of the Czech-Israeli Business Forum, he said he would continue to support closer economic ties between the two countries as well as back Israel politically, including at the European level.

Macinka said the forum aims to foster new business contacts while delivering concrete results in the form of contracts, joint projects, investments and long-term partnerships. He identified the defence industry, cybersecurity and digital technologies, healthcare and biotechnology, and transport and logistics as the key sectors for future cooperation, adding that Czech companies should be viewed not only as suppliers but also as equal partners and investors.

Traffic in Prague was severely disrupted on Tuesday morning after an anonymous bomb threat prompted security restrictions at the city's main railway station.

Police evacuated the station and closed the adjacent Hlavní nádraží metro station. Train services were suspended for more than an hour, while a nearby section of the city's main thoroughfare was also closed to traffic.

The anonymous threat was received shortly after 8 a.m. As a precaution, police immediately shut the metro station before halting rail services and evacuating the railway terminal. Bomb disposal experts then carried out a thorough search of the premises.

Police later announced on X that no explosive device had been found, and the threat proved to be a false alarm.