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While the immigrant crisis has opened up a wide rift between the Czech Republic and other Central European states on one side and the traditional EU agenda setters in Western Europe, France and Germany on the other, differences within some Czech parties about the crisis and the possible solutions have also emerged.

The Czech Republic is one of a small number of member states holding out against European Union plans for a quota system to share refugees around the bloc. The country’s foreign minister, Lubomír Zaorálek, plays down talk of Brussels withdrawing funds from states that refuse to accept set numbers of migrants – but concedes that Prague may be outvoted over the matter in the not too distant future.

A new exhibition entitled a Brave New World – deliberately evoking the title of Aldous Huxley’s famous dystopian novel – has just opened in Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. Running until mid-January next year, the exhibition is presenting the works of countless artists tasked with bringing to life various dark social themes such as surveillance, consumerism and totalitarian oppression. I spoke with the museum’s director and exhibition curator Leoš Válka and began by asking him to explain the idea behind the presentation.

EU interior ministers on Monday failed to reach agreement on mandatory quotas for the redistribution of 120,000 migrants across the EU. Efforts by West European states to get firm commitments and a timetable for redistribution were blocked by the Czech Republic and three other Višegrad Group states which have refused to accept mandatory quotas on the argument that they simply will not work.

A decision by Germany on Sunday to reintroduce border controls with Austria in the wake of a seemingly endless flow of refugees, mainly comping from Syria, has led to a similar decision being taken by Czech authorities. As of Monday, around two-hundred police have been sent to the Czech-Austrian and also Czech-Slovak borders amidst fears that the German decision could lead to a spike in the numbers of migrants traversing Czech territory.

The foreign ministers of the Visegrad Four countries, Germany and Luxembourg met in Prague on Friday to discuss Europe’s ongoing refugee crisis. Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier insisted on EU states sharing the burden, while his Visegrad counterparts may have shown the first hints of division over the issue of quotas.

Politicians from across the Czech political spectrum have reaffirmed their opposition to a revised plan unveiled by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Wednesday that would see member states dividing-up 160,000 asylum seekers. Instead, Czech elected officials are maintaining that assistance to refugees should be a voluntary matter.

The migrant crisis, the changing security environment and NATO’s role in addressing the challenges of the present day topped the agenda of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s talks with Czech top officials in Prague on Wednesday. The NATO Secretary General made it clear that while the migrant crisis called for an immediate reaction from the EU, NATO should primarily address the cause of the crisis in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Czech Republic is currently benefiting from a number of positive economic indicators, including strong GDP growth of 4.4 percent, low unemployment of 6.2 percent, and low public debt. But will the "boom" continue, or is the country merely riding the wave of a short-term economic bubble? I spoke with Charles University economist Michal Mejstřík for his take, and began by asking him to explain the factors behind the current strong economic indicators.

One of the main events at this year’s Dvořák Prague Festival was without question Monday’s opening concert of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 2 and the composer’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, with world-renowned American cellist Yo Yo Ma. He first performed with the Czech Philharmonic back in 1989, under the baton of conductor Václav Neumann, just as Czechoslovakia was emerging from over 40 years of Communist rule.