Current Affairs | All stories

While western European countries slowly take strong measures against smoking, including outright bans in public places, countries such as the Czech Republic are struggling to make meaningful reductions, while anti-smoking legislation remains stalled. Meanwhile, new figures suggest that more and more Czechs are lighting up.

The Czech government is working on a proposal that will give Poland back the land it was stripped of in the 1950s, at the order of the Soviet leadership. While the territory to be returned to the Czech Republic’s northern neighbour is very small and Polish claims are not disputed, some mayors that will be affected by the settlement hope their own interests will also be taken into account.

Vandalism and football hooliganism that has become an increasing problem for both the authorities and people living in the vicinity of football stadiums. The interior ministry has now announced strict new measures to bring the problem under control. Football hooliganism continues to be a major drain on police resources as well as a safety threat.

Hundreds gathered outside Prague’s National Theatre on Sunday to witness an eight-hour-long protest against the way the arts are funded in the Czech capital. The event - comprising of performances, speeches and concerts staged by Czech stars - marked the opening of the ‘Dny neklidu’ (‘Days of Unrest’). The festival, which calls on Prague City Hall to change the way it deals out its culture budget, has been largely masterminded by actors and producers at the capital’s Švandovo Divadlo. I paid this Smíchov theatre a visit to talk to event organiser

Addressing a two-day meeting of the European Nuclear Energy Forum in Prague on Thursday, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek urged Europe to look to nuclear power as a realistic means of fighting climate change. Although the prime minister’s speech met with approval from many of the delegates present, it evoked an angry response from the Greens in the governing coalition who have been doing their utmost to put a brake on nuclear energy in the Czech Republic.

New statistics from the Czech police suggest that thousands of children are going missing in the Czech Republic every year. Meanwhile, government proposals to put in place a system to alert the public to missing children remains stalled due to lack of financing.

Prague’s seventh annual Fringe Festival, a marathon of theatre, dance, comedy, music and film from around the world, gets underway in the Czech capital on Sunday. Running for eight days, it will offer 227 English, Czech or non-verbal shows performed by 39 companies. Steven Gove, the man behind the Prague Fringe Festival, told me what is on offer this year:

On Wednesday, the Czech government officially recognised Kosovo’s independence and said it planned to establish diplomatic relations with Pristina. The Czech Republic now joins a long line of EU member states to have acknowledged the former Serbian province’s independence, but the move has not been without controversy.

Last-minute rehearsals before the long-awaited world premiere of Václav Havel’s latest play at Prague’s Archa Theatre on Thursday night. Leaving or Odcházení, is the first play the former Czech president has written in more than two decades. It tells the story of a high-ranking politician who leaves his post and sees his world fall apart. The play is inspired by Shakespeare’s King Lear and Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard and is about the passage of power from one generation to the next. The former dissident insists that it is not based on his own experiences,

On Wednesday the government approved a treaty between the Czech Republic and the US on the deployment of an American radar base on Czech territory. The treaty, to be signed later this summer, sets the ground for a planned US missile defence system in Europe, including not only the radar in the Czech Republic but also interceptor rockets in Poland. But reaching agreement with the US is only the first step. The coalition will next have to push the treaty through Parliament and there is every indication that it won’t have it easy.