Milos Zeman

Petr Kellner. Photo: EPA-EFE/PPF GROUP

The deference shown to the Chinese officials by the party leader of the Czech Communists during a video conference last September is shocking.

That said, there's plenty of time for spin, scandal and scheming to change the course. "It will be interesting to see how Ano's marketers will camouflage Babis's failures in leadership," Otto Eibl, an assistant professor in political science at Masaryk University, told BIRN.

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Analysts say such displays hint at a geopolitical realignment taking place in parts of Central and Southeast Europe as the pandemic prompts some governments to pivot away from Brussels and towards more authoritarian allies to the east.

Foreign hackers have contacted the computer network of the Czech president's office and have been providing information of unknown nature for several months, Czech state television reported, citing the Office for the Protection of Personal Information.

Since then, however, the fight to defend journalistic freedom has flagged, and public mobilisation has proved to be fleeting — including in the case of Charlie Hebdo.

In January 2019, the magazine's staff complained in an editorial that people no longer wanted to hear about the shootings. "Perhaps you should move on!" they were reportedly told.

More than 200,000 Czechs have gathered in Prague to demand the resignation of billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, France Press office reported.

But the organisers called a pause over the summer holidays and asked protesters to reconvene on November 16, the day before the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. 

Can the protest movement now regain momentum through a new wave of protests, and even if it does, will it ever have a decisive impact on Czech politics?

Bulgaria and the Czech Republic will deepen their cooperation to defend common stances on important for the two countries topics on the EU agenda. This is what emerged at the meeting between Rumen Radev and the Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek, who is visiting Sofia.

Vucic stressed at a press conference that he cannot interfere in the internal affairs of any country, or even in the decision on a possible change of attitude regarding the status of the so-called Kosovo.