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A number of institutions opened their doors to the public on the occasion of the 98th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. The Karel Kramář villa, the official residence of Czech prime ministers, offered guided tours of the villa with its 56 rooms built in 1915. The villa was home to the first Czechoslovak prime minister Karel Kramář and his wife Naděžda. People could also visit the premises of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate including the assembly halls which are usually off limits.

Rectors and students from universities around the country assembled at the statue of T.G. Masaryk on Hradčany Square on Friday to mark the 98th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia and pay their respects to the country’s first president. The Czech Association of Rectors has said its members would not be attending the official celebrations at Prague Castle on Friday evening in protest against President Zeman’s policies. Representatives of student organizations expressed support for the decision. The ceremony was also attended by the president of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Jiří Drahoš, who said the academic world must stick together and confirmed that academics would also stay away from the event. Many students and academics are expected to take part in the alternate celebrations which are to be held on Old Town Square.

Many Czech politicians say they will be staying away from a state awards ceremony at Prague Castle on Friday after the president’s office reportedly crossed a Holocaust survivor off the recipients list. Critics say, however, that such a boycott disrespects the most important state holiday.

The Czech president’s spokesman has confirmed the head of state is considering presenting Auschwitz survivor George Brady not with a state honour but a separate award as a “gesture of good will”. The move is an attempt to defuse a widening scandal after the culture minister charged that Brady, his uncle, was struck off the list of this year’s award recipients as punishment for the minister’s meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Christian Democrat deputies and senators are to stay away from a state honours ceremony at Prague Castle on October 28. Party leader Pavel Bělobrádek said the event had degenerated into undignified politicking and the settling of personal scores. The announcement follows a scandal linked to the alleged removal of George Brady from a list of recipients of honours after his nephew, Christian Democrat arts minister Daniel Herman, received the Dalai Lama. However, Mr. Bělobrádek welcomed a suggestion that the president’s office could present Mr. Brady with an award on a different occasion. Many legislators from other parties will also boycott Friday’s ceremony.

A scandal has broken out in connection with Friday’s award-giving ceremony at Prague Castle, that threatens to blight the official celebrations of Czechoslovak Independence Day on October 28. Culture Minister Daniel Herman has accused the president of having threatened him that, if he met with the Dalai Lama, his uncle, Auschwitz survivor George Brady, would be taken off the nominees’ list for a state award. The claim –and Brady’s absence on the list - have sparked widespread criticism and demands for an explanation.

Catholic priest Tomas Halík has called on religious leaders, cultural representatives and members of the academic world to boycott the October 28 celebrations at Prague Castle in solidarity with George Brady. Mr. Halík, who received the prestigious Templeton Prize in 2014, also urged the nominees who are to receive state awards from President Zeman this year to consider whether they can accept the honour without a sense of shame. The Catholic priest said Czech society cannot remain silent in the face of the latest developments because to do so would mean to turn the helm of the country’s ship away from Europe and the values of the Western world.

The majority of university rectors will not attend the traditional ceremony at Prague Castle marking Czechoslovak Independence Day on October 28th, Czech Radio reported on Friday. An academic boycott of the celebrations has taken place for several years in a row in a show of protest against the policies of President Miloš Zeman and the fact that reactors who have fallen into disfavor with the head of state do not receive an invitation to the event. The Rectors Conference says this is undignified and has accused Mr. Zeman of appropriating the public holiday. The president’s spokesman Jiří Ovčaček warned that rectors who do not turn up for the event this year risk being crossed of the invitation list for good.

Czech President Miloš Zeman bestowed state decorations on 35 people, on the occasion of the national holiday marking the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak state in 1918. At a special ceremony on Wednesday evening, the president bestowed the top Czech decoration, the Order of the White Lion, to the late RAF pilot Josef František. The Order of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, in memoriam, was given to Frantisek Kriegel, the only Prague Spring leader who refused to sign the Moscow protocol in 1968 legitimising the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. The Medal of Heroism was given to Petr Vejvoda, a 16-year-old student who was killed by a mentally ill woman when defending a girl in a secondary school in Žďár nad Sázavou. Other recipients included former football international Pavel Nedvěd or the late Karel Weirich, a Czech journalist who saved the lives 200 Czechoslovak Jews in Italy during WWII.

Around 500 people turned out for the unveiling of a statue of Jobst of Moravia in Brno on Wednesday on the occasion of the Czechoslovak Independence Day. The eight-metre statue of the Margrave of Moravia, who ruled the region since 1375 until 1410, was created by sculptor Jaroslav Róna, and cost around 7 million crowns (some 260,000 euros). Another statue was unveiled in České Budějovice in South Bohemia to King Otakar II, who established the town in 1264.