Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s ANO party’s lead narrowed in the latest opinion poll conducted ahead of next month’s general elections. Although ANO would garner most votes, no single party or coalition is likely to win an outright majority, according to the survey of 1,200 people carried out on Sept. 13-22 by pollster Kantar and published by Czech Television on Sunday. The Social Democrats, ANO’s current minority coalition partner, wouldn’t clear the 5% threshold needed for representation in the lower chamber of parliament, the poll showed. The Czech Republic is due to hold the elections on Oct 8-9. The Kantar poll’s margin of error ranges from 1 percentage points for small parties to 3.2 percentage points for the biggest. The following is a table of the latest election models published by select polling agencies. Note: The Kantar poll was commissioned by Czech Television, while the August and September STEM surveys were commissioned by CNN Prima News. The months denote the period when the surveys were conducted. The coalition Spolu (Together) consists of the center-right Civic Democrats, TOP 09 and the Christian Democrats. The SPD is the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party.
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 Four antigens and two PCR tests for coronavirus per month will continue to be covered by health insurance throughout October and possibly for longer. The cost to health insurance companies has been estimated at about two billion crowns a month. Travel to the Czech Republic from France, Spain, the Netherlands and Monaco, will be easier as of Monday when these countries will turn orange on the Health Ministry’s travel map. Passengers from orange states who are not fully vaccinated must fill in an arrival form and be tested before entering the Czech Republic or undergo an antigen or PCR test no later than five days after arrival. The Czech Telecommunication Office is going to regulate the mobile data market next year because it has found limited competition in it. It therefore intends to impose an obligation on O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone to allow virtual operators access to their wholesale mobile services at a regulated price. WORLD Switzerland voted by a wide margin to allow same-sex couples to marry in a referendum on Sunday, bringing the Alpine...
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is due to receive his third vaccine against Covid-19 next month, shortly before parliamentary elections are due to be held. Babis is to have his booster shot at Prague’s military hospital on October 7, he said during a televised debate on Friday. His shot will come a day before the country heads to the polls for a two-day parliamentary election. Advance polling suggests Babis is the favourite. However, during the debate, he was roundly criticized for his health policies during the pandemic, with challenger Ivan Bartos of the Pirate Party accusing him of gambling away the public’s trust. “This is the biggest defeat of the Czech government,” he told CT radio, adding that hundreds of thousands of senior citizens have not yet been vaccinated. “Mr. Bartoš has no information and is not telling the truth,” Babiš said. Some 65.5 per cent of Czech adults are fully vaccinated, according to information provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). More than 30,400 people have died of Covid-19 in the Czech Republic since the pandemic began.
September 23, 2021, SkyUp Airlines (Ukraine) has operated the first flight to Prague from Kyiv. From now on there will be three flights per week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. The convenient schedule allows planning both a tourist trip and a business meeting. Later SkyUp Airlines plans to increase the number of flights. Ukraine and the Czech Republic are important economic partners, and trade between the countries is growing. According to data of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Czech Republic, in 2020 Ukraine ranked 22nd among the Czech Republic’s foreign trade partners. Even higher economic performance is expected this year, while open borders and direct flights make an important contribution to this process. Also, an intergovernmental agreement on the promotion and mutual protection of investments has been concluded between the countries, which makes business connections reliable. From the Ukrainian capital, passengers can easily get to different parts of the world: together with SkyUp you can discover Zanzibar, Almaty, or Tashkent. The schedule of these flights is set to make transfer comfortable. Facts about SkyUp Airlines SkyUp Airlines is a private Ukrainian air carrier. It operates on a hybrid model, providing both charter and regular flights. Its flight program consists of more...
The railway administration has opened an underpass leading from the Main Railway Station (Hlavní Nádraží) to Žižkov. People will be able to avoid the U Bulhara crossroads and walk straight from Vrchlický sady to Seifertova street. The construction took about 16 months and cost CZK 219.5 million. The project included also new escalators and a lift at the exit from the extended northern underpass where an information and orientation system had been set up as well. The supplier carried out related adaptations of the catenary and completed the road and surface for pedestrians at the underpass exit. At the opening of the underpass, Minister of Transport Karel Havlíček reminded that the underpass will make the transfer of Žižkov and Vinohrady residents much easier. The reconstruction of the Art Nouveau Fanta building is also continuing at Prague Central Station. The renovation of the facade with subsequent renovation of the interior should be completed shortly. It started this year. In October, the administration also wants to present further projects on the planned route to the airport. “Everyone needed it,” Prime Minister Andrej Babiš praised himself on his Twitter, reminding that he had been waiting for this underpass for decades. Potřebovali ho všichni....
The Metronome Prague 2022 festival has confirmed another massive act. Underworld, one of the most influential electronica groups in the world, will join previously-announced Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, indie-pop duo Oh Wonder, and American singer-songwriter Beck. Underworld is one of the most significant electronica groups in the world and pioneers of this progressive genre. Although the group reached acclaim in the 1990s, its foundations go back to the previous decade. Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have been at the heart of the group since its inception, accompanied by more than a dozen collaborators, including DJ Darren Emerson. Underworld’s big break came with the soundtrack to the cult film Trainspotting when two of its songs, Underworld Dark & Long (Dark Train) and Born Slippy became anthems of the 90s and for electronic music in general. Underworld is also significant that it’s one of the few global groups with millions in sales that never lost the will to evolve its sound, experiment, and cooperate with other musicians often from very different genres, such as minimalist improvisational group The Necks or rock star Iggy Pop. Besides its dozens of albums, Underworld has also released many live recordings, contributed to movie soundtracks, and...
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 According to Eurostat, governments across the EU spent over €100 billion on research and development (R&D), equivalent to 0.8% of GDP. The highest spending per capita was recorded in Luxembourg, while Czech Republic ranked 15th of 27th, with just under €150 per person. A discussion is underway in the European Union about the color-coded labeling of food products, the so-called Nutri-Score, to indicate how healthy they are. Some Czech food manufacturers are not waiting for legislation, and have started using the scheme themselves. Former Czech president Václav Klaus has been admitted to hospital for the second time in a matter of weeks. A spokesperson said the 80-year-old was suffering from high blood pressure, the same problem that saw him taken into Prague’s Central Military Hospital the first time. WORLD Manufacturers will be forced to create a universal charging solution for phones and small electronic devices, under a new rule proposed by the European Commission (EC). The aim is to reduce waste by encouraging consumers to re-use existing chargers when buying a new device. All...
Some 6,000 pubs and restaurants across the Czech Republic take part in the eight annual Czech Beer Days (Dny českého piva) from September 23 to September 30. St. Wenceslas Day, the 28th of September, is a national holiday, celebrating Václav I’s legacy of helping unify Bohemia. But he is also considered the patron saint of beer. Dozens of breweries and microbreweries are participating nationwide in the festival. The event celebrates not only beer but pub culture as a whole. And so participating pubs around the country are offering up not only special beers but also unique menus featuring dishes such as roast boar served with a rosehip sauce. Meanwhile, breweries are opening up their doors to visitors who will be able to see just how the beloved amber drink is made “We believe that Czech Beer Days will help encourage people to go out more often for their favorite beer. Czechs love Czech beer and the Czech beer tradition. We know that favorite pubs, especially for smaller towns and villages, are the center of social and cultural life,” František Šámal, chairman of the ČSPS, said in a press release. The Union of Breweries and Malt Houses established the Days of...
A Syrian couple, who were forced to seek asylum while on honeymoon in Prague, has now settled in the city as refugees. And though fitting into a new society is far from a holiday experience, Abdul and Silva are still in love with the city of their dreams. “If I’m depressed,” says Silva, 44, an interior designer from Damascus, “I go to an island on the Vltava and sit and say to myself, ‘it’s OK, I’m in a wonderful country and yes, I still feel the romance’.” Two factors have helped Silva and Abdul, 42, feel at home in the Czech Republic. One was the care they received when their son was born prematurely in Prague. The other is that Abdul, who co-owned a furniture factory back in Syria, has found work in a similar line of business with a job at IKEA. Abdul is a Syrian national while Silva is from the Armenian community in Lebanon but both grew up in Damascus. Silva graduated in interior design from the University of Damascus. Abdul’s degree in commerce and accounting was awarded under an Arab League scheme by the University of Sudan but he did his studies in Damascus. With good...
Signal Pass – a paid zone that includes three seats! Put on your 3D glasses and experience the biggest projection Signal has ever produced. An immersive experience from the Spanish studio Onionlab awaits you in the pompous hall of the Industrial Palace. An installation that eclipses many video mappings of recent years. Moreover, the neighbouring location offers a unique 360° projection in the Planetarium as part of the Signal Pass, which shows the damaged Czech landscape in drone footage. Videomapping is not to be missed It wouldn’t be Signal if organizers didn’t prepare a videomapping of one of the historic churches in Prague. You already know the Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Karlín from the last Signals. This year, the videomapping will be prepared by the German studio Weltraumgrafik: we have been looking forward to it for two years! The Wind is a work about the future. The wind as a symbol of change and uncertainty that we don’t have to fear. Something completely new? The new Signal Festival app. There, you’ll find a map, info and everything you want to know and take to the festival. What may be incredible is that you also carry your virtual...
More than a year into the pandemic, activity at Prague Airport is now starting to pick up again, with nearly 700,000 passengers passing through the facility this August. This is a reported 102 percent increase from August of last year. Prague Airport also observed that more than 7,500 landings and takeoffs took place this August — 40 percent more than the previous year. Besides the typical vacation locales of Greece, Italy, and Spain, other popular destinations included Hurghada, Marsa, Alam, and Antalya. Burgas, a city on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, was most popular among travelers, with 46,000 passengers headed there. From the statistics collected, many passengers from Prague also flew to Amsterdam and Rhodes. Though the data supports predictions of increased travel, traffic is still far from where it was in 2019. “In August, our forecasts of strong outbound tourism were confirmed. There was a year-on-year increase of more than 100% in the number of passengers handled, but compared to August 2019, this is a 65% decrease,” said Jaroslav Filip, Director of Aviation Trade at Prague Airport. He added that the gradual relaxation of global travel restrictions attributed to a “slight recovery” in tourism from places like the United States. ...
The Chinese carmaker Dongfeng has started offering cars and electric cars in the Czech Republic. Next year it wants to sell 300 electric cars and the same number of petrol cars in the country. It now has homologated three models including two petrol SUVs and one electric SUV. A sports electric car with an output of 510 kW is to come to the domestic market by the end of the year, and a luxury electric car by the middle of 2022. Donfeng Motors is one of the three largest carmakers in China with an annual production of more than 3.5 million cars. Distribution for the Czech Republic will be provided by Bidli, which has so far operated mainly on the real estate market, but also supplies photovoltaic power plants or sells energy. The cars will be offered in the car center in Vestec near Prague, where there is also a service, and at the Bidli branches, of which there are currently 35. The cars will also be sold on the Internet. Service in individual regions will be provided by contractual partners. Dongfeng wants to compete in the Czech market mainly with pricing. It starts with the Glory 580 petrol model at...
Don’t have an account? Register
Already have an account? Log In
How Would You Like to Promote Your Business? PR ArticleDisplay bannersVideo productionNewsletter adsJob ListingsInfluencer Marketing
Your Email
We will come back to you within 24 hours with our proporsal
