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Czech trade unions have decided that their show of force in mass demonstrations needs muscle. The Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions says that tripartite negotiations with the government are over and it’s time for a new protest which, as their chairman Jaroslav Zavadil said, is going to hurt.

The ruling coalition that won an unprecedented majority in the last elections is a thing of the past. On Tuesday, the Public Affairs party, decimated by the recent departure of a number of former members, left the government. The centre-right cabinet now faces a vote of confidence to test the strength of its support in the lower house.

Although opinion polls indicate that the vast majority of Czechs would like to see early elections, embattled Prime Minister Petr Nečas has decided to try and weather the latest crisis and will ask the lower house for a vote of confidence in his government on Friday. Amidst speculation that he may end up with a razor sharp majority, political analysts are questioning the wisdom of trying to hold onto power at any cost. Radio Prague spoke to Jiři Pehe about the repercussions this might have but - first and foremost - the legitimacy of this new political

This weekend saw thousands join an anti-government protest in Prague calling for an end to the current government and its reform policies, which critics call unnecessarily strict. The trade union-led demonstration saw as many as 100,000 people come out - with the promise that unless the government paves the way for early elections, protests will only be more intense.

The fate of the centre-right Czech government hangs in the balance after the junior coalition party Public Affairs split up, robbing the government of its comfortable majority in the lower house. The newly emerging pro-government faction around defector Karolína Peake is now trying to rally enough deputies to secure a viable majority in the lower house, but the key players on the Czech political scene are already preparing for early elections.

On Wednesday night, The Shape of Blue, a painting by abstract artist František Kupka, sold for 55.75 million crowns at auction – setting a new Czech art auction record. The impressive final sum came as a surprise even to the director of Adolf Loos Aprtment & Gallery, which organized the auction. What significance does this latest record have for the domestic art market, and what makes this work of Kupka’s special? We spoke to Jan Skřivánek, the editor-in-chief of art + antiques.

This Thursday saw the hosting of a Culture Plus event at Prague’s Černín Palace, co-organised by the Czech Foreign Ministry. On the table was the topic Culture & Diplomacy – namely how culture, including the arts, can be used to promote greater communication and understanding.

In its ongoing effort to find ways of lowering the state budget deficit, the Czech government has announced that it is planning to introduce a new tax on wine. The country’s winemakers are enraged and believe that this step will lower the competitiveness of domestic vintners, while giving foreign producers an edge on the Czech market.

Influential politician Karolína Peake dropped a political bombshell late Tuesday when she announced that she was leaving the smallest party in government to found a new faction. The move has cast doubt on whether the centre-right coalition still has a majority in the lower house needed to govern.

Cue: Pirates of the World, Unite! – that was the message at this weekend’s Pirate Party International meeting in Prague, the third in the organisation’s history and the first in the Czech capital. What started as a Swedish protest movement against the criminalisation of file-sharing has grown into a tangible political body, setting its sights on continent-wide success in the 2014 European Parliament elections.