Current Affairs | All stories

On Tuesday, the European Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction released its European Drug report for 2014, mapping trends in illicit drug use and related threats to public health. For the Czech Republic, the news is sobering but not altogether surprising: that the country has the highest rate of methamphetamine consumption in Europe.

Locals in the municipality of Lubenec, opposed to the possible siting of a nuclear waste storage facility in the area, have gained a new argument in their favour: the protection of an endangered salamander in the vicinity. The species S. salamandra was only recently spotted in the area again, and environmentalists and inhabitants are saying the need to protect the slippery fellow should see Lubenec struck off the ‘possible locations’ list.

The most noteworthy aspect of elections to the European Parliament in the Czech Republic was not who won, but the fact that only 18.2 percent of the country’s eligible voters bothered to take part. Why did Czechs choose to ignore the European elections –and could the country’s past explain people’s distrust of decisions made outside the country’s borders? Political commentator Jiři Pehe says both the distant past and present-day politics played a role.

In an interview before the results of the European election were announced, businessman turned politician Andrej Babiš expressed doubts his ANO movement would win, suggesting a knock on the chin would be a wake-up call ahead of communal elections this autumn. But the party leader spoke too soon: ANO maintained just enough momentum, edging both the opposition party TOP 09 and fellow coalition partners the Social Democrats.

Czechs started voting in elections to the European Parliament on Friday with over 800 candidates in the running for the country’s 21 seats in the assembly. While the number of parties and groupings fielding candidates in the European elections has grown, voter turnout is traditionally expected to lag behind the EU average.

The highest possible punishments that the state can impose have been handed out in a batch of key verdicts on some of the leading players in the Czech methanol scandal which killed 50 and has left dozens of others maimed for life.

Now in its 13th year, the Prague Fringe Festival brings dozens of productions from around the globe to the city for nine days of alternative drama, comedy, music, dance and more. Ahead of Friday’s opening of the colourful festival, which is centred in the historic Malá Strana district, I spoke to director Steve Gove – and began by asking him what the highlights of this year’s Fringe were likely to be.

As much as the Czech national hockey team would like to be firing on all cylinders at the World Championships in Minsk, the bottom line is that the squad has been less than convincing. On Tuesday, Jágr and co. faced France, the Cinderella story of the tournament, and only just came out ahead, edging the French 5-4 in overtime.

Two exhibitions opening in Prague on Friday will turn the spotlight on a writer closely associated with the city, Franz Kafka. One will focus on his classic novel The Trial, giving visitors a rare chance to see pages from the original manuscript, while the other will present Kafka and his work through the eyes of cartoonists. Ian Willoughby reports.

The Czech Republic has lost one of its most respected artists: Adriena Šimotová, who passed away on Monday at the age of 87. Šimotová, who was banned from exhibiting in Communist Czechoslovakia during the so-called ‘Normalisation period’, went from a classic painter’s approach early in her career to a more abstract but also figurative style, often working with images in fabric or paper.