Current Affairs | All stories

Most people date the beginning of the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia to November 17th, 1989, when a peaceful student demonstration was brutally broken up by riot police. But cracks in the regime's grip on power began to appear much earlier in that year, when people gathered to mark the 20th anniversary of Jan Palach's self-immolation in January 1969. For seven days starting January 15th, 1989, demonstrators who tried to gather on Wenceslas Square were beaten and sprayed with water cannon. Among them was Ivana Varju, who was a student at Charles

The author of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, has just been in Prague for what he described as a vacation. The multi-million selling writer, known for his love of symbols and legends, has set previous novels in other historical European cities. So what are the chances of a future Brown hit taking place in the Czech capital?

Evidently concerned over Russia’s human rights record, some European leaders have rejected invitations to attend the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi in three weeks’ time. Among those who will be there is Czech President Miloš Zeman, who takes the view that sport and politics should not be mixed. Meanwhile, a great Czech Olympian is boycotting a related event in Prague because of Mr. Zeman’s presence.

Czech trams, or should we say streetcars, are now running on the tracks of the US capital in what promises to be a prestigious shop window for their manufacturer and a further opening onto the booming US market.

The Czech capital is bracing itself for thousands of young Danes who are expected to arrive during the upcoming school winter holidays in their country. The authorities in both countries have started preparing for their arrival in an effort to prevent the dozens of alcohol-fuelled incidents of violence and destruction Prague saw last year.

Rising petrol prices in the Czech Republic have sparked a steady drop in demand, with sales dropping by a quarter in the last five years. People are driving less, planning their trips better and adapting their vehicles to run on cheaper types of fuel.

The European Commission has put on hold 100 billion crowns earmarked for two Czech operational programmes because of fears they were subject to corruption and insufficient supervision, according to the daily Mladá fronta Dnes. The Commission will not resume payments into the programmes until the Czech authorities revolve the issues.

President Miloš Zeman has confirmed he will appoint Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka prime minister next week…but questions remain over Mr Sobotka’s choice of ministers. In a 40-minute televised news conference President Zeman listed a number of objections to the proposed new cabinet, but suggested the new government could be appointed by the end of January.

Though the ink is long dry on a coalition deal and cabinet posts agreed on by the three parties concerned, the path to a new Czech government remains unclear. There has been speculation that the president may reject some ministerial candidates – and could even try to force the nascent coalition to accept some of his own nominees.

The Czech NGO People in Need provides aid and humanitarian assistance to people in over twenty war-ravaged and poverty-stricken countries around the world. One of its most dangerous missions is now in Syria where three of its local employees were killed and two others wounded in artillery shelling in the city of Allepo on Wednesday. Radio Prague called Petr Stefan of People in Need’s Prague office for more information on the story.