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President Petr Pavel has vetoed a controversial amendment to the law that would increase the salaries of top politicians by almost seven percent this year, while the salaries of judges and state prosecutors would be stagnant, in view of increases in previous years.
The president said he disagreed with the way lawmakers dealt with the Constitutional Court's ruling on the salaries of constitutional officials, especially in relation to setting the salary base for judges this year. In a letter to the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Marketa Pekarová Adamová he also criticized the retroactivity of the draft legislation. According to President Pavel, the proposed salary amendment is only a transitional solution and not a good one.
The hike was vehemently opposed by ANO and the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party who had proposed a five-year freeze on politicians’ salaries in view of implemented austerity measures, tax hikes and growing public discontent. The bill will determine the salaries of some 5,000 officials.
The amendment will now go back to the Chamber of Deputies, which is expected to override the president’s veto thanks to the majority of the ruling coalition.
Three new ambassadors to Czechia are set to present their credentials to President Pater Pavel on Monday.
Yashar Teymur Oglu Aliyev, formerly head of Azerbaijan’s embassy in the U.S. and Permanent Representative to the UN, will become Azerbaijan's ambassador in Prague.
The other two ambassadors will be based in Vienna. Muhammad Hindawi, Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative of Jordan to the UN, will head the Jordanian Embassy. Ángela Marianna Vigliotta Mell, will represent her country in Czechia, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovenia.
After the ceremony at Prague Castle, the ambassadors can officially assume their office.
Several hundred people gathered outside the Prague Archbishop's Palace on Hradčany Square on Sunday to draw attention to the problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Organizers from the Initiative for a Clean Church are demanding the resignation of Prague Archbishop Jan Graubner and a halt to the ratification of Czechia’s treaty with the Vatican. The demonstrators also protested against the removal of the vicar of the parish at the Church of the Most Holy Salvator, Marek Orko Vácha who was removed from his post for having served a mass for believers and non-believers in what was termed as “inappropriate conditions”. According to a statement issued by the Prague Archbishopric, liturgical regulations of the Church were violated during the mass. The vicar has denied this.
Several dozen people paid tribute to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in front of the Russian Embassy in Prague on Sunday, on the first anniversary of his death in a penal colony. People brought flowers and lit candles outside the embassy gates and Navalny's speeches were projected on a screen. The aim of the commemoration was not only a tribute to Navalny, but also an expression of solidarity with those who continue to fight for democracy in Russia. The event was organized by the Czech-based initiative Russians for Democracy.
The Interior Ministry is preparing an amendment to the foreigners’ law that would allow the authorities to use AI instead of human interpreters in asylum proceedings. Interpreters have protested against the idea, warning of the uncertain quality of such tools, but refugee aid organizations welcome the change, saying that it promises greater objectivity in the procedure.
Participants in the asylum procedure would have the right to refuse a machine translation, but in that case they would have to arrange for a court interpreter and cover the costs of the service.
The number of beds in homes for the elderly in the Czech Republic will need to increase from 28, 000 to 83, 000 by 2035, according to a survey conducted by the Boston Consulting Group for the Ministry of Labour. Even now there is a shortage of beds in some locations and a lack of around 3,000 caregivers, according to Jiří Horecký, President of the Association of Social Service Providers. He pointed to a lack in outpatient field services, and said that caregivers in residential services were often severely overburdened. The main reasons for the lack of caregivers is the low level of salaries, the high physical demands on staff and the low prestige of the profession.
The Liberec region experienced its coldest night of the winter, with temperatures ranging from -14 to -20°C. In Jizerka, temperatures dropped below -27°C, the coldest in the area in four years. The last similar cold snap occurred on February 15, 2001, with a low of -30.3°C at the Jizerka - Rašeliniště station.
However, this remains far from Jizerka's all-time cold record. The lowest temperature ever recorded there was -41.5°C in 1944, with -35.3°C measured in February 2012.
Tuesday should bring clear to partly cloudy skies with day temperatures between -1 and 4 degrees Celsius. Nighttime lows can drop to - 12 degrees.
Ďáblice Astronomical Observatory, located in the north of Prague, has been welcoming stargazers since 1956. Built by local astronomy enthusiasts, it started as a small project and grew into an observatory with two domes. Led for many years by teacher Zdeněk Corn, it became an important place for astronomical observation and education. Today, it operates as part of Prague’s observatory and planetarium network. Dominik Jůn paid a visit.
The buildings of the Association of Design Studios, known colloquially as ‘Prager’s Cubes’, are a set of modernist buildings in Prague’s New Town that are in desperate need of renovation. Thanks to popular support, that renovation is likely to happen in 2025.
Heads of states and other representatives met over the weekend at the three-day Munich Security Conference, held from February 14 to 16, 2025. This year, the conference mainly focused on transatlantic relations, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the Middle East.
After an icy weekend, when night temperatures dropped to -27°C in the Jizera and Ore Mountains, a severe frost warning remains in place for most of the Czech Republic. Temperatures are expected to drop to -15 °C at nights and may remain below freezing point during daytime. Sunny weather and warmer temperatures are expected at the close of the week.
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