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The Czech koruna is rallying against the euro at a rate not seen since June 2008, just in the nick of time for Christmas. From the start of November, the Czech Republic’s currency went from 27.18 to 26.16 CZK per euro, or a gain of about 4%. Štěpán Hájek, an analyst from Purple Trading, told iDnes.cz that if the koruna can hold its pace till the end of November, this will be the biggest monthly gain against the euro in 12 and a half years. The analyst cites positive vaccine news, as well as a shift out of safe havens like the USD and euro as driving up the koruna. “The markets have so far experienced the largest rotation fromContinue Reading

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In 1952, Jaromír Vytopil of Pelhřimov got his start in the book industry when he was 15 years old, where one of his first jobs was frantically revaluing books after the sudden currency reform imposed by the Soviet Union in June of 1953. Except for 2 years of military service, Vytopil spent the rest of his life immersed in the world of books, starting his own bookstore in Pelhřimov nearly 30 years ago and becoming a well known staple of the community. 5 years ago he gained his title of “longest serving book seller” and entered the Czech Book Of Records. In an interview with iDnes.cz in 2015, he said “I have always had a lot of fun with books,Continue Reading

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Jan Blatný, the Health Minister for the Czech Republic, said on Wednesday that the country plans on purchasing at least two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines developed through the Pfizer/BioNtech joined efforts. The country has joined a European Union initiative to buy the vaccines in bulk and distribute them to various countries, and hopefully to the Czech Republic by the first quarter of the next year. The Czech government has already ordered three million doses of a slightly different vaccine from a British-Swedish company called AstraZeneca, so combined with the doses from Pfizer/BioNtech, the country should have roughly 5 million doses. “We believe that, as it stands now, we should have around five million doses when the vaccine is available,”Continue Reading

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The body of 24-year old Nina H. was found in Hvězda park Monday morning, after being missing since Friday. It is believed that 34-year old Jan P., who committed suicide via jumping in front of a metro train on Friday, is connected to the woman’s death. Police spokeswoman Eva Kropáčová said: “Late last night, we confirmed that the body found in Hvězda Park was that of the missing 24-year old woman who unfortunately suffered a traumatic death.” According to idnes.cz, the identity of the body was also confirmed by the woman’s sister who made a Facebook post about it. The post has since been deleted but messages of condolence have poured in. Confirmed by camera surveillance footage, Nina was lastContinue Reading

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Amidst heavy scepticism of the long term health effects of 5G radiation, an experiment here in the Czech Republic was done to get to the bottom of it. The Association of Mobile Network Operators (APMS), in collaboration with professor Jan Vrba, of Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT), did a thorough analysis of radiation levels emitted from a 5G tower on Bělehradská street in Prague. Health regulations state 10W/m² for regular citizens and 50 W/m² for technicians and operators working on transmitters. After their experiment on Bělehradská Street, they found that the radiation levels coming from 5G transmitters were well below safe levels. Even standing right next to the 5G antennae on the roof, the radiation levels were still withinContinue Reading

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In an effort to stem economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic, the Czech government has spent more than 100 billion Kč on various forms of stimulus, with at least 170 billion Kč more to come. Alena Schillerová, minister of finance for ANO, said on Sunday: “Just in direct support alone, we’ve taken 270 billion Kč worth of stimulus measures, which is already being distributed. Our goal is to implement all our relief programs in the shortest possible time.” The anti-covid-19 measures come amid a massive drop in tax revenues, causing a widening of budget deficits across the board. The government has paid at least 13.3 billion Kč in compensation to self-employed people, additional 6.8 billion Kč was paid from localContinue Reading

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On Thursday, Slovakia’s National Crime Agency (NAKA) raided the homes of several of the country’s top former police officials and brought them in for questioning on suspicion of working with organized crime groups, Novinky.cz reports. According to Slovakia’s Markíza TV, among those detained were Tibor Gašpar, former police chief, Peter Hraško, former director of the National Criminal Agency (NAKA), Róbert Krajmer, former head of the anti-corruption unit, and Bernard Slobodník, former head of police finance. The arrests make things worse for Jan Hamáček, minister of the interior for the Czech Republic, who has been heavily criticised for having a relationship with Gašpar despite widespread speculation on Gašpar’s integrity. The investigation, codenamed “Operation Purgatory” and rolled out by NAKA on ThursdayContinue Reading

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Following the abolition of the super-gross wage, political parties ANO and SPD have formed a coalition to replace it with a 15 % income tax to everyone earning under 137,000 Kč a month, and 23% to those earning more than that. Opposing parties argue that the income tax won’t be big enough to keep the government within its annual budget, especially since it’s not being offset by any new taxes or revenue sources. Miroslav Kalousek, former minister of finance and former leader of the TOP 09 party, said that “If Andrej Babiš’s amendment is approved, our budget is going to be a complete write-off.” President Miloš Zeman had his own reservations about the amendment, placing a 2-year limit on itContinue Reading

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In the first few days of November, the Czech Republic saw a significant slowing in the growth rate of COVID-19 cases. On Monday, November 2nd, there were 9,241 COVID-19 cases recorded, more than a thousand less than the week before. However, Czech health minister Jan Blatny said in a statement on Monday that the country has to wait for more data to come in before any celebrations are in order. “I’m still cautious with our evaluation because we can’t assume that the weekend’s numbers are final. Monday and Tuesday could end up surprising us, so I would not take these numbers too seriously.” Blatny also said that he was working on preparing a new, more coherent system for the looseningContinue Reading

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Prince Karel Schwarzenberg, former foreign minister and chancellor under Vaclav Havel, has come out and said that Central European states’ unwillingness to go along with EU migration quotas is “unfair and inhumane.” In an interview with Belgian newspaper New Europe, Schwarzenberg said that when it comes to accepting migrants, “the Czech Republic should behave like a normal EU country.” “But, unfortunately, Babis, Orban and (Mateusz) Morawiecki (Poland’s Prime Minister) are very successful amongst the voters with their populist migration policy” Schwarzenberg, the current head of the House Of Schwarzenberg dynasty, is also disappointed in Austrian president Sebastien Kurz’s decision to quit accepting more migrants. “Unfortunately, the Austrian government has also decided to share the view of the Visegrad countries… OfContinue Reading