Daily news summary

Public trust in EU back to pre-crisis days

Public support for Czech membership in the EU is almost back to its old-time high, with 53 percent of Czechs now saying they support the country’s membership in the EU.

During the past seven years trust in the EU was deeply undermined by the financial and migrant crisis with support figures sliding from 59 percent to 38 percent in 2016.

The strongest degree of support for EU membership is among the young generation where it is now at 63 percent.

Czechs accepting of new government

Most Czechs are accepting of the newly-appointed minority government of ANO and the Social Democrats, according to the outcome of a poll conducted by the Kantar TNS agency.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said the government was not ideal, but they had nothing against it. Twenty-eight percent found it unacceptable.

Asked whether they minded the fact that the government had to rely of the Communist Party for support, 49 percent of respondents said they did not, 42 percent expressed reservations.

Two injured in plant explosion

An explosion in a plant producing airbag components in the town of Jablunka, in the eastern part of the country, injured two people, one of them seriously, the ctk news agency reported.

The blast which occurred early on Monday, shook the plant’s main building, which was immediately evacuated. Experts later declared it unsafe due to structural damage.

The cause of the incident is being investigated. The damage is expected to reach millions of crowns.

Oratorium for Prague to premiere at Karlovy Vary Festival

The Karlovy Vary Film Festival will screen the film Oratorium for Prague by Jan Němec on Monday, a unique document of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, which will have its Czech premiere in Karlovy Vary.

The documentary was initially meant to be about the liberalization of Czechoslovakia but unexpectedly became a record of the invasion, documenting the entry of Russian tanks into Prague.

The only film footage of the Soviet invasion, it was smuggled out of the country and shown by TV stations abroad.

Food-poisoning incident at Karlovy Vary Film Festival

Around forty visitors to the Karlovy Vary Film Festival were treated for food poisoning at the weekend after eating at one of the festival stalls, the ctk news agency reported.All received medical attention at the Karlovy Vary hospital and were released within hours.

The incident is being investigated by the local hygiene authorities. It is thought that contaminated water may have been the problem.

First post-communist justice minister Dagmar Burešová dies at 88

The country’s first post-1989 justice minister Dagmar Burešová died at the weekend, at the age of 88, the ctk news agency reported.

After 1969 Burešová defended many dissidents persecuted by the regime in court, among them writer Milan Kundera, the mother of Jan Palach or Ivan Medek, who was later chancellor to president Vaclav Havel.

After the fall of communism in 1989, Burešová was appointed justice minister and played a big role in reforming the country’s justice system.

Weather forecast

Tuesday should bring clear skies around the country with day temperatures between 22 and 26 degrees Celsius.