Daily news summary
Hundreds attend Lidice commemorative event
Government officials, war veterans, cultural figures and foreign representatives attended a ceremony commemorating the 76th anniversary of the razing of Lidice by the Nazis on Sunday.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said the massacre of the village’s inhabitants in 1942 should serve as a warning to future generations. In his address the prime minister emphasized the role of the EU and NATO in securing peace on the continent.
The head of the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters Jaroslav Vodička noted that the Lidice atrocity had touched people the world over and many towns now bore the name Lidice in memory of the village that was wiped off the face of the Earth.
Václav Klaus: Russia not a threat to Czech Republic, unlike EU
Russia does not present a threat to the Czech Republic, unlike the EU with its numerous directives, former president Václav Klaus said on Sunday in an interview for commercial TV Prima. Commenting on international and domestic affairs, Mr. Klaus said he agreed with President Donald Trump that Russia should be allowed to re-join the G7.
As regards developments at home, the politician who founded the Civic Democrats and who later left the party over ideological differences, criticized its present leader Petr Fiala for not using the opportunity to form a centre-right coalition with the ANO party.
Mr. Klaus said ANO was an “ideologically shapeless mass” that could swing left or right, and pushing it right would have served Czech interests better.
Home-grown medicinal marihuana to be available in pharmacies soon
The State Institute for Drug Control says that medicinal marihuana grown on the domestic market should be available in pharmacies by the end of June. Its price should be 149 crowns per gram without VAT.
Presently pharmacies can only offer imported marihuana, which is several times more expensive. Around 880,000 patients with multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS are believed to use medicinal marihuana in the Czech Republic.
However patients complain that the doze prescribed per month is insufficient for their needs and that medicinal marihuana in pharmacies is twice as expensive as that sold on the black market.
Heavy storms batter Czech Republic
Storms and torrential rain hit several regions of the Czech Republic on Saturday evening, flooding cellars and roads.
In Prague fire-fighters were called to over 50 emergencies, including one at the St. Agnes Cloister in the Old Town, where they pumped water from the cellars. A young woman who had been geocaching is believed to have drowned in the Vltava because of the storm.
In Šumperk a train ploughed into a fallen tree, but no one was reported hurt in the accident. A storm alert remains in place until Sunday evening.
Krejčíková and Siniaková win doubles final at French Open
Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková won the women's doubles final match of the French Open tennis tournament on Sunday, defeating Japan's Eri Hoizumi and Makoto Ninomiya in two sets 6-3, 6-3. Krejčíková and Siniaková, who are both 22, were playing in their fifth major tournament together. It is the third Czech victory in the womens doubles at Rolland Garros.
Rosický takes his final bow with beneficiary match at Sparta
The legendary Czech footballer Tomáš Rosický ended his career with a star-studded beneficiary match at Prague’s Sparta stadium on Saturday.
Thousands of fans from at home and abroad turned up for the match which pitted international stars such as Cesc Fábregas, Mathieu Flamini, Van Persie, Aleksandr Hleb and Jens Lehmann against a home team including Pavel Nedvěd, Karel Poborský, Jan Koller, Petr Čech and Milan Baroš.
Rosický’s penalty shot helped his team to a 5:2 victory and the last goal was scored by his four-year-old son who joined his father on the pitch in the last minutes of the game.
Weather forecast
Monday should bring partly cloudy to overcast skies and day temperatures between 26 and 30 degrees Celsius.
