Morning Briefing │ Monday, April 8th, 2024

* ECONOMY:

Analysts predict Czech inflation to have hovered around the Czech National Bank’s target of two percent in March, continuing the trend from February, when it reached this mark for the first time since December 2018.

* POLITICS:

Had parliamentary elections taken place in March, Andrej Babiš’s opposition ANO party would have won with 32.9 percent of the vote, according to a poll conducted by the STEM agency and published by CNN Prima News on Sunday. Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s Civic Democrat party would have come in second with 14.5 percent of the vote.

* WEATHER:

Temperature records for April 7 were broken around the country on Sunday. The highest recorded temperature was in České Budějovice at a sweltering 30.9 degrees Celsius, knocking off the original record of 30.6 degrees, recorded earlier the same day in Prague.

* SLOVAKIA:

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský have both also congratulated Peter Pellegrini on winning the Slovak presidential elections. Mr. Fiala wrote on social media site X that he believes Czechia and Slovakia will further develop their already excellent and deep relations.

* SPORT:

Czech athlete Ester Ledecká has become the first recipient of the European Union Trophy for the best athlete at the Premios Nacionales del Deporte (National Sports Awards), a prestigious annual ceremony that honor Spain’s top athletes. The ceremony expanded its awards to include the top EU athlete following the country’s presidency of the Council of the European Union last year.