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The sculpture Entropa has been one of the most reported on aspects of the Czech presidency of the European Union. The artwork, which was placed in an EU building in Brussels, lampoons national stereotypes, for instance portraying Romania as a Dracula theme park and France as a country on strike. What’s more, sculptor David Černý managed to fool the then Czech government, who commissioned Entropa, into thinking it was the work of artists from various EU states, when in fact he alone was the author.

It’s roast duck and dumplings on the menu at the United Nations’ dining room in New York this week as part of an ongoing showcase of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency. A series of cultural and gastronomic events have been organized by the Czech Mission to the UN to raise the profile of the country’s time at the top in Brussels. But with the EU being chaired right now by a technocratic, interim Czech government, is this really something the country’s diplomats would like to emphasise? I spoke to Bořek Lizec from the Czech mission to the UN and

The Czech Republic has taken a step against the anti-smoking flow in the rest of Europe. While anti-smoking bans have spread across the continent in recent years, Czech MPs have proposed a relaxation of the current rules for smoking in pubs and restaurants. Anti-smoking groups say they have caved in to pressure from the powerful tobacco lobby.

The speaker of the Czech lower house of parliament has got himself into hot water while leading a delegation of European MPs on a fact finding meeting in the Middle East. Members of the delegation held talks with the radical Hamas group behind the speaker’s back although the official EU and Czech stance is to shun such contacts. Some see the incident as symbolic of the stuttering end to the Czech EU presidency.

Political extremism, especially on the far right, has been a big issue in the Czech Republic over the last six months, with a strong perception that it is on the rise. It may have been a coincidence, but on Tuesday the subject was all over the news for a variety of reasons. Police arrested a number of neo-Nazis and announced the setting up of new riot squads, while many of the country’s political leaders signed a declaration condemning extremism.

The latest advertising contest underway is one that competitors will not be keen on winning. The Sexist Piggy prize goes to the advertiser responsible for the most sexist ad, and it’s been turning a lot of heads itself.

The Oxford-Weidenfeld prize is one of the UK’s most prestigious translation awards. This year, six books are being judged by a panel of Oxford academics and translators – amongst them Marek Tomin’s translation of Emil Hakl’s ‘O rodičích a dětech’, titled ‘Of Kids & Parents’. This Tuesday, Marek flies to Britain ahead of tomorrow evening’s ceremony. Just before he left though, I caught up with him to ask what had attracted him to the Czech original of Hakl’s book. As well as the writing style, Marek suggests, there are more personal reasons for

There were a lot of long faces in Czech politics as the results of elections to the European Parliament came in, and one of them was that of President Václav Klaus, the country’s most vocal eurosceptic and a fierce opponent of the Lisbon treaty. His chief ally in Europe, Ireland’s Declan Ganley, was forced to admit defeat and the three small eurosceptic parties which the Czech president indirectly supported on home ground all failed to make their mark.

The head of the Green Party, Martin Bursík, has resigned from his post over the party’s poor showing in the European elections. The Greens received just over two percent of the vote, a much lower score than they had hoped for. With the second in line now in charge, the party will try for a comeback in October’s early general election.

The centre-right Civic Democrats headed by former prime minister Mirek Topolánek were the clear winners in the Czech Republic’s elections to the European Parliament at the weekend. They finished some way ahead of the Social Democrats, taking nine out of the Czech Republic’s 22 seats.