Democracy Digest: V4 Countries Face New Challenges as Pandemic Eases

Czech Republic: economy slows down as lockdown eases

The Czech Republic further eased its lockdown and travel restrictions this week, as the coronavirus pandemic weakened. It has dropped the obligatory wearing of facemasks, allowed pubs, restaurants, hotels and museums to fully open and has partially opened borders, rail links and airports.

Border controls were removed from crossings with Germany and Austria for EU citizens and long-term residents with proof of a negative COVID-19 test for 72-hour business and family trips. The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have opened their borders for each other's citizens for two-day trips without tests. Rail links resumed with Germany and Austria and airports started Schengen-area flights.

Seventy per cent of Czech companies reported a drop in orders in May and June, double the previous rate in April, as the impact of the coronavirus lockdown measures bit, a survey of 242 companies by the Confederation of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic showed earlier this week.

The share of companies whose volume dropped by 40 per cent more than doubled to 48 per cent in May, from April.

However, data from the second biggest bank, Ceska Sporitelna, showed consumer activity recovering, with a 9-per-cent rise in card transactions in the last two weeks after they fell by almost a quarter when all shops and business closed in mid-March.

Zdenka Tominová, one of the original signatories of the Charter 77 petition for the respect of human rights in communist Czechoslovakia, died at the age of 79 in London. A novelist whose works were banned and who faced harassment for her dissident activities after the communist regime declared her an "enemy of the state", Tominová emigrated...