5 Things First: The Top Czech and World News Headlines

If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. 

CZECH REPUBLIC

• The far-right SPD party, which may play a role in forming a new Czech government next month, would demand the cabinet propose legislation that could lead to a referendum on leaving the European Union, party chief Tomio Okamura said on Wednesday.

• Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban will visit the North Bohemian Usti Region next Wednesday and Orban will also come to an election rally of ANO, government spokesman Vladimir Vorechovsky told the daily Denik N on Wednesday.

• The Czech Republic has asked Russia for legal aid in connection with the investigation into the blasts in the ammunition depot in Vrbetice, south Moravia, of which Russian military intelligence (GRU) agents are suspected, the Regional State Attorney’s Office in Brno said in a press release on Wednesday.

WORLD

• No salary for no vax who should be in quarantine: this is what was decided in Germany by the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, in agreement with colleagues from the Lander. According to what was leaked, the rules will affect both those who tested positive for Covid and those who have returned from a list of countries considered to be at high risk.

• Ukrainian police are trying to work out who ordered unidentified individuals to try to murder a top aide of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after his car was sprayed with automatic gunfire on Wednesday morning in an attack that shocked the political elite.