Czechia

Slovenia has fallen in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which measures perceived levels of corruption in the public sector. It scored 56 out of 100 points last year, the lowest so far although it has kept 41st spot among 180 countries, level with Italy, Georgia and Czechia.

While that may have attracted some additional support from a sizable but fragmented anti-establishment and extremist minority that has emerged in the country, it also appeared to help mobilise the liberal democratic part of the electorate. The resulting turnout of over 70 per cent was a record for the second round of the election.

A referendum will take place in Slovakia on Saturday, as citizens vote on a constitutional change that would make it possible to shorten parliament's term through a referendum or by a majority vote in the parliament. The referendum, the first in seven years, was initiated by the opposition Smer party back in 2021.

EU foreign ministers met in Prague this week, under the auspices of Czechia's presidency of the EU Council, to discuss calls from CEE and Nordic member states to close the bloc's door to Russians.

Czechia's centre-right government has agreed a "neutral stance' on a controversial bill to enshrine marriage as between a man and a woman in the constitution, Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced on Wednesday. The legislation was proposed in response to the 'threat' posed by the recent submission of a parliamentary bill to legalise gay marriage.

Amid the vicious heatwave pummelling Europe, the acrid stench of wildfires invaded homes across Czechia as fire ripped through Ceske Svycarsko (Czech Switzerland), one of the country's four national parks. Germany. Italy, and Slovakia joined the battle, as the inferno threatened to consume the area's magical sandstone stacks and pine forest sitting on Czechia's northwest border.

Oil shipments from Russia through a critical pipeline to Czechia resumed on Aug. 12 after more than a week, the Czech pipeline operator Mero said.

Czechia became the last central European country after Slovakia and Hungary to receive deliveries from the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline after a problem over payments for transit was resolved.

The cultural tier has to do with language and public imagination. The strategy is far more insidious than just taking part in public debate. Anti-choice propaganda is relentless, loud, gruesome and repetitive. It ignores reality, it appeals to deep-felt anxieties. It can be brutal, as with images of cut-up, bloody foetuses paraded in front of schools or driven around on the sides of vans.

Disinformation and misinformation being spread about Ukrainian refugees includes exaggerating the financial support they can access - a claim widespread in Czechia - and incorrect claims of antisocial or illegal activity.

Activists of KoalaKollektiv during a protest against the greenwashing of nuclear energy and natural gas by the taxonomy of the EU, in front of the Euro sign in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 11 January 2022. EPA-EFE/RONALD WITTEK