Czech morning news roundup: Thursday, November 25, 2021

Czech President Miloš Zeman’s release from Prague’s Central Military Hospital (ÚVN) is anticipated today. Various sources suggest Zeman’s transfer from the hospital to his residence in Lány will take place in the morning, although the decision to release the President is subject to a final medical review. Prague Castle and ÚVN have not yet confirmed the release.

Zeman was taken to ÚVN on October 10. Although doctors have not specified the nature of his illness, it is widely claimed the President suffers from liver problems. After spending weeks in intensive care, Zeman was transferred to a regular hospital room and is now in a long-term care bed. Prague Castle has announced a press conference this afternoon, the topic of which remains unknown.

Around 60 people gathered at Prague’s Masarykovo nádraží on Wednesday evening to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the first railways transportation of Jews from Prague to Terezín concentration camp.

Attendees criticized the disrepair of Terezín at the event, calling it the most important monument to the history of the Holocaust in the Czech lands. Some buildings at the site are in danger of collapsing, even though Terezín is listed as a cultural monument. The director of the Terezín Genocide Studies Center said demolition of the site would constitute irreplaceable damage. The poor state of the barracks was also emphasized by the SOS Terezín exhibition open to the public at the railway station in Prague yesterday. Terezín was established in the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on November 24, 1941. From then until the end of World War II, around 155,000 Jews were taken to the camp, 117,000 of whom did not live to see its liberation.

The Open Czechia movement will hold another protest against current anti-pandemic measures on Sunday on Prague’s Letná, featuring speeches from legal experts, doctors, and a live music program. The movement said it is also planning to hold events on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, and will launch a call center next week to provide advice on workers’ rights and other issues relating to lockdowns.

Police estimate that around 10,000 people took part in the group’s last protest in Prague’s Old Town Square on November 17. Organizers say events are being organized in agreement with the police. The movement is also organizing a petition against compulsory vaccination which has so far been signed online by around 13,000 people.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has sharply criticized the Belarusian regime led by President Alexander Lukashenko for the humanitarian crisis unfolding at the Polish-Belarusian border. Thousands of migrants are stuck in the border region after being led to believe that Belarus offered an easy gateway in the EU’s Schengen Zone.

Speaking after a meeting of the Visegrád Four group comprising the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, Babiš said the European Union should respond with sanctions against airlines transporting migrants from the Middle East to Belarus. The Czech Republic has meanwhile offered to help Poland defend its border with police and military assistance.

The seventh edition of a book listing Czech national record holders in various categories and activities has been released. The Czech Book of Records was ceremonially presented in Prague by Alexandr Károlyi, the first ombudsman of the Czech Olympic Committee and the longest-serving Chairman of the disciplinary commission of the Czech Football Association.

The book contains many updates in various categories ranging from the spectacular to the peculiar. Eighty percent of the content of the book is new; something described as remarkable by the creators of the book given that the Covid pandemic has put a halt to so many activities and opportunities to break records in the last two years. Creative solutions have been found: such as a record holder who ran a marathon around two tables in his living room. A new edition of the Czech Book of Records is released every three years.