Prague mayor rents former flat to single mom as part of a pilot project

Slovak-born Czech film director and scriptwriter Dušan Klein a Holocaust survivor, died at 82 on Sunday, his son David Klein told journalists today. Dusan Klein made his mark by a series of films about "teenage poets." Klein shot tens of detective stories and comedies such as "Yes, My Dear Friends" (1989), a satirical story made at the close of the Communist regime, and also televised series. The first three parts of Klein's legendary "poetic" series was seen by over five million viewers in the 1980s. Klein is a graduate from the Prague Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) where he majored in filmmaking and between 1975 and 1991, he worked at the Barrandov Film Studio. As a child, Klein survived the stay in the Theresienstadt ghetto during World War II.

The mayor of Prague, Zdeněk Hřib, has announced his participation in the Municipal Rental Agency, a newly established public service that is helping to make housing accessible to Praguers in housing need. The mayor's apartment is now being rented by a single woman with three children. The mayor said he hopes to actively contribute to solving the long-term housing crisis, as a private individual who will rent the flat to the socially disadvantaged. Apartments must go through a formal selection. The mayor's apartment is now among fifteen properties for which the Municipal Rental Agency has a contract. In November, a mother with three small children moved into Hřib's former Vršovice residence.

Czech Defence Minister Jana Černochová (Civic Democrats, ODS) wants to submit a bill on an investment fund for defense that would guarantee money for military purchases for several years and recruit more soldiers to the military, she told a press conference today. She said the fund could be set up in late 2023 or in the following years. She said more soldiers should be recruited already this year. Ideally, 2,000 new soldiers should join the military a year, while at present it is 500 to 800 new soldiers a year. Černochová said one soldier costs the state one million crowns per year, so it is necessary to earmark the required funds

Some 3,500 people protesting a government directive that imposes mandatory Covid-19 vaccination on selected professionals and people over 60 gathered on Prague's Wenceslas Square Sunday afternoon and later set off for a march heading to the Government Office and Prague Castle. Speakers questioned the efficiency of the vaccine, inoculation of children, and face masks. Police estimated some 3,000 people started on the square with others joining later. As a result, roughly 3,500 people marched in the event organized by the DOG Croaked/We Will Open Czechia anti-lockdown group.

A large mural has appeared on the roof of an abandoned building near the village of Maxov near Česká Lípa. The provocative painting, called "Prayer" depicting a naked kneeling woman, was created by two Czech artists known as Unlimited Freedom Ritchie and JW Mind Strike. The artists say it's the largest work of illegal street art in the Czech Republic. Czech media have been reporting that the image also appears on Google Earth. "It cost almost 500 square meters, 60 kilograms of paint, and two days of work," the artists said of the mural on social media.

The city of Pilsen has opened an exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Jewish transports to the Terezín concentration camp through historical documents and photos. Some 2,604 men, women, and children were deported from the Plzeň freight station to the ghetto in Terezín in January 1942. Only 204 out of them lived to see the end of the war. The exhibition opens in the city hall today and runs through January 28, while an outdoor exhibit is open until February 3. Following Prague and Brno, Pilsen was the third Czech city from which Jews were deported.