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Reports surfaced on Tuesday that a number of representatives of the Czech Roma community are considering founding a new party focussing on Roma issues, including how to tackle long-standing social problems and ethnic tension between communities. Those have grown especially in North Bohemia in recent weeks. While some, like notable sociologist Ivan Gabal have praised the project so far – he told a national Czech newspaper such a party could “change the atmosphere in Czech politics and improve the social climate”, many others are sceptical, saying

The drawn-out debate over the construction of a futuristic building colloquially known as “the Blob” originally meant to house the Czech National Library in Prague has taken a new turn. Designed by the late Czech-born London-based architect Jan Kaplický, the huge green and purple structure divided public opinion when it won an international competition in 2007 and the project was finally scuppered. Now, more than four years after the original plan was put forward, Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda has unexpectedly renewed the debate.

The special Czech police squad for fighting organized crime has warned that ultra-right groupings in the country have been gathering strength and are now better organized and more active than before the 2010 clamp-down on extremism. The Workers Party, banned by a court ruling in 2010, has successfully regrouped into the Workers Party of Social Justice and ultra-right activists are making an all out effort to use the wave of anti-Romany sentiment in the north of the country to their best advantage. So far the public has shown little sign of supporting

The popular Czech actor, singer, songwriter, playwright, painter, screenwriter and director Jiří Suchý turned 80 on Saturday. In top form, the living legend of Czech theatre received standing ovations at a special concert he held to celebrate his birthday at Prague’s Semafor theatre.

Foreign Minister, and coalition TOP 09 party leader Karel Schwarzenberg has accused the state-controlled electricity firm ČEZ of bankrolling Czech political parties. In an interview for the news-website aktualne.cz this week, Mr Schwarzenberg said it was “a public secret” that ČEZ had financed parties – except his own group, TOP 09. The serious accusations – presented with no evidence or further details – were dismissed by politicians across the board – with the notable exception of František Bublan, a Social Democrat MP, and former Interior Minister

A playground in the central Prague neighbourhood of Podolí has been crowded with, not children, but radiation specialists since Wednesday evening, when the park was found to have up to a five times the normal levels of background radioactivity. On Thursday that reading was raised to 1000 times normal levels at the various source points under the earth. While it is not necessarily dangerous – unless one were to stand over the source for an hour or more – authorities rushed to identify what could possibly be causing the radioactivity, finding a radon

Czech football titleholders Viktoria Plzeň made their second appearance in the prestigious Champions League when they played Italian champions AC Milan on Wednesday. The Czechs put up a brave fight but a harsh penalty and an excellent performance by Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave the hosts a 2:0 win, ending Plzeň’s hopes of upsetting the strong favourite.

It was an historic day for commuters Monday as the first RegioJet train rolled on to the tracks, the first ever challenge to the state-owned Czech Railways. Though the brand new RegioJet has only three trains, travellers from Prague to Ostrava or vice versa now have a choice of services for the first time, and it looks like the competition is going to get interesting.

Half a dozen European bison have been returned to the wild at the Ralsko nature reserve, a former Red Army military training ground about an hour’s drive from Prague. It’s the latest chapter in what is a remarkable reversal of fortunes for Europe’s largest mammal. Hunted virtually to the point of extinction, in recent years they’ve made something of a comeback.

Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek has been named “Finance Minister of the Year for Emerging Europe 2011”, an award presented by the Washington-based Emerging Markets magazine. The award, given for Mr. Kalousek’s commitment to consolidating public finances amidst a worsening global outlook, is seen as confirmation of the Czech government’s prudent fiscal policy and on picking up the award a beaming Miroslav Kalousek was quick to promise the nation “more cuts in public spending” in the year to come.