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Last year, the guerrilla art group Ztohoven made headlines all over the world after they took down the presidential standard on top of Prague Castle and replaced it with a giant pair of red underpants in protest against the president’s policies. Now, more than six months later, there is follow-up to the prank. The art activists have cut up the presidential flag into 1152 pieces and handed them out at random to people in cities and towns across the Czech Republic.

New anti-smoking legislation, risen from the ashes of a similar bill shot down in last month, will again be debated in the lower house. At stake is a full ban on smoking in restaurants. The government is hoping this time the bill gets the necessary support not least from coalition MPs.

The planned departure of the United Kingdom will not halt the development of the EU; however, the rest of the bloc must work harder to convince the publics of its merits. That was the message from Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek after a meeting in Prague on Monday with his counterparts from the other Visegrad states, Germany and France.

As reactions to Brexit pour in, the most common argument to be heard from Czech politicians is that Britain’s decision to leave the EU desperately signals the need for change. Will Brexit be the beginning of the end for the EU or is there a chance that the alliance can rally in the wake of this shock? And, are there fears that Britain’s decision will fuel the anti-EU camp here in the Czech Republic? Those are questions I put to the Czech State Secretary for EU Affairs Tomáš Prouza shortly after the outcome of the vote was announced. I began by asking

The decision by British voters for Great Britain to leave the EU has come as a major shock to many. In the Czech Republic, as elsewhere, politicians issued statements largely of regret but in some cases, congratulations that democracy had been served.

The Czech government has just approved legislation that will make it illegal for shops to give customers free plastic bags from the year after next. Small clear bags to hold the likes of fruit or bread rolls will not be affected by the new EU-required norm. Will Czechs mind having to pay for plastic bags? And what will the benefits of the move be? I discussed those issues with environmentalist Vojtěch Kotecký.

Unknown diaries by playwright and dissident Václav Havel, kept when he was jailed by the Communist regime in 1977 will be published later this year by the Václav Havel Library on the occasion of what would have been the late Czech president’s 80th birthday. The recently discovered entries were written over a period of several months following the release of the Charter 77 manifesto in January 1977. I asked Michael Žantovský, the head of Václav Havel Library, to tell me more about their origin:

Wednesday is the last day of campaigning in the British referendum over whether to remain or quit the European Union, the so-called ‘Brexit’ option. The vote is being closely followed in the Czech Republic with emotions high among local backers of both the remain and leave camps. They perhaps agree on one thing: that the vote will be decisive for the future of Czechs as well.

The Czech Republic’s footballers have been packing their bags after a hugely disappointing European Championship in France. Pavel Vrba’s men exited the competition on Tuesday night following a 2:0 defeat to Turkey left them with just one point from three group games. Where did it all go wrong for the Czechs at the Euros? And what does the future hold for the team’s manager? I put those questions to soccer journalist Michal Petrák on the line from France.

The planned merger of two elite police units has caused a rift in the ruling coalition and triggered an open war in the ranks of the police force. The outgoing head of the squad for fighting organized crime Robert Šlachta, who resigned in protest of the planned changes, has requested a hearing before Parliament’s Security Committee saying he has evidence of links between the police and the criminal underworld.