German Foreign Office warns of hepatitis in the Czech Republic

The Federal Foreign Office has drawn attention to the increase in hepatitis A infections in the Czech Republic and has recommended that people should only enter the country if they have been vaccinated against the disease. According to the Foreign Office, the capital Prague and the districts of Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), Central Bohemia and Moravian Silesia are particularly affected. "Pay attention to basic hygiene measures, especially consistent hand hygiene," says the Foreign Office website.

The Czech Republic is currently experiencing the largest hepatitis A epidemic in recent decades. By mid-November, over 2,500 infections had been reported, four times more than a year ago and more than at any time since 1989. The last hepatitis A epidemic dates back to 1979, when over 32,000 people were infected.

First coal-fired power plants to be closed as early as 2027

The first coal-fired power plants in the Czech Republic will be taken off the grid by the end of next year. Sev.en has announced that it will shut down the Počerady and Chvaletice power plants as well as the power plant in Kladno in December 2026, and by March 2027 at the latest. The reason for this is the difficult market situation. Specifically, this relates to the price of emission allowances and the market prices for electricity and gas. This would mean that the power plants would be shut down well before the government's previous plan. This had assumed a coal phase-out in 2033.

The Počerady power plant is located in northern Bohemia south of Most (Brüx). The power plant in Chvaletice is located on the Elbe in the Pardubice district east of Kolín. Both are among the largest coal-fired power plants in the Czech Republic. Together with the power plant in Kladno, they have an installed capacity of almost 2,400 megawatts. The power plant in Kladno also has an installed thermal capacity of 950 megawatts.

For the second year in a row, Sev.en is making high losses with its power plants. The problem is the high CO2 emissions. Sev.en needs exactly one emissions certificate to produce one megawatt hour. By comparison, the coal-fired power plants of the state-owned energy company ČEZ only need an average of 0.8 certificates. Sev.en's power plants also have a lower level of efficiency, at 32 to 33 percent.

The big question will be what impact the closure of three power plants will have on the grid and the energy supply. The grid company ČEPS must examine this. In an earlier projection, ČEPS had already assumed that the shutdown of several power plants would turn the Czech Republic into an importer of electrical energy. The country has traditionally been an exporter of energy. Should it be economically necessary, the Czech Republic has the instrument of allowing a power plant to continue producing with state aid.

The upcoming change of government also plays an important role. The three parties involved have already announced that they will allow coal-fired power plants to run longer with state support.

An overhead line causes train chaos between Prague and Berlin

Train detour and hours of delays: On November 26 (Wednesday), rail travelers from Prague via Dresden and on to Berlin had to be patient. The cause was an overnight accident on the overhead line on the Prague-Děčín line, according to a breaking news report from Czech Railways České dráhy. Rail traffic was interrupted between the stations of Hrobce and Roudnice nad Labem (Raudnitz). International trains were diverted with considerable delays via the alternative route on the right bank of the Elbe via Lysá nad Labem and Mělník, which then also affected traffic between Dresden and Berlin. The line at the scene of the accident was not open again until 2 p.m., and delays continued into the evening.

However, the railroad did not disclose this: Overhead line damage has occurred for the 16th time in just under nine months, the last time last weekend. And the damage doesn't occur by chance somewhere on the open line, but in the middle of Roudnice nad Labem. In a way, it is damage by design. In Roudnice, the historic Špindler Bridge over the Elbe has been undergoing renovation since March. The steel construction from 1910 was getting on in years. The international railroad line runs directly under the bridge on the town side. When the line was electrified, the bridge was already in place, which is why the overhead line hangs relatively low. In order not to endanger the bridge renovation and, above all, the construction workers, the section under the bridge was taken off the grid. Train drivers have to retract the pantograph for the time being. To be on the safe side, the railroad infrastructure company Správa železnic had safety hooks installed before and after the work. If the pantograph remains up, it is pulled off the hooks as an emergency solution. The overhead line then remains intact, but the train cannot continue with the broken pantograph and blocks the line until a new locomotive is procured.

At the moment, infrastructure companies and train drivers are blaming each other. Some complain about ignorant train drivers. The others feel they have been badly warned. In fact, flashing warning signals have only recently been installed. In addition, train drivers are now being called and reminded to lower the pantograph. Despite this, another accident occurred on Wednesday night. The train drivers also believe that the problem could be solved in a different way and that the pantographs are being destroyed unnecessarily. Správa železnic denies that there is any other technical solution.

It was probably bad news in this context when it was announced in October that the bridge would have to be renovated for much longer than originally planned. The renovation should actually have been completed by now. As both the steel structure and sandstone girders have to be replaced in parts, the renovation will now take until the fall of next year. The Ústí district, which owns the bridge, has announced that it wants to complete the section of bridge under which the railroad line runs as quickly as possible. Until then, there is the threat of hours of delays in the event of another accident.

North Bohemian cities offer scholarships for returnees

In order to stop the exodus of well-trained specialists in particular, towns in northern Bohemia are offering scholarships. The spa town of Teplice, for example, offers 100,000 crowns every year to all those who return to Teplice after their studies and work or run a business there. The condition is that they stay in Teplice after completing their studies for at least the same amount of time as they received the scholarship. However, interest is limited. Just five have applied. The scholarship amounts to 4,167 euros per year. That doesn't sound like much, but it can help. Unlike before: the city only offered an annual scholarship of 10,000 crowns, i.e. 417 euros. Nobody wanted to commit to their old home for so little money.

There is even less interest in the hop and UNESCO World Heritage city of Žatec (Saaz). No one has applied for an annual scholarship, which is only 50,000 crowns, since it was introduced in 2022. In Žatec, the offer is also limited to future general practitioners, paediatricians and dentists.

The Ústí (Aussig) district also hands out scholarships. You can receive up to 100,000 crowns here. However, the scholarship is now limited to future teachers. As many as ten apply each year. This was different in the past, when the scholarship was available for other subjects without restriction.

The city of Aš in the Saxon-Bavarian-Czech border triangle is also primarily interested in teachers. Students can receive up to 96,000 crowns per year (4,000 euros). In addition, after graduation, there is a one-off starting grant of another 150,000 crowns (6,250 euros). The future teachers can also save on rent in the long term. They are even given preferential allocation of a municipal apartment, which they can use rent-free for a year. After that, they pay the rent themselves, but only half as much as in other municipal apartments.

Good consumer sentiment in the Czech Republic

This should be good news for retailers in the run-up to Christmas: In the Czech Republic, private household confidence in the economy jumped by 4.3 points to 111.7 in November. This is the highest value for six years. Analysts attribute the increased confidence in part to the result of the parliamentary elections in October. "Households are expecting certain economic improvements from the new government," said Petr Javůrek, chief analyst at Provident Financial. The hope relates specifically to the promise of lower energy prices.

However, the increase is also taking place against the backdrop of good economic development. The economy is growing faster than expected and wages have also risen well. All of this together is probably the reason for the positive mood.

The situation is different for companies, however, where confidence in economic development fell by 3.5 points to 99.9. This is slightly below the average. This is a clear indication that the positive economic development in the Czech Republic continues to be driven by private consumption. However, the picture is not uniform in the economy either. While the mood in the industrial and construction sectors is down, it is splendid in the service sector.

Analysts expect economic growth of 2.5 percent in 2025. They do not expect a recovery in industry until the course of next year.

Another nine Saxon-Czech projects approved

Today, the Local Steering Committee approved funding for a further nine small Saxon-Czech projects from the Small Projects Fund in the Elbe/Labe Euroregion. The distribution was very uneven this time: eight Czech projects were matched by only one from Saxony. The projects received a total of 80,469.60 euros in funding.

Overview of the projects

 

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)

A perfectly normal Sunday in the family of cab driver Homolka: first they enjoy nature, look for mushrooms, sunbathe, dance like elves through the forest. Then there's a fight at home, grandpa gets locked in, a couple is repeatedly disturbed during their flirtation, the children lock themselves in, the son is afraid of his wife, schnitzel burns, and in the end? Even a Sunday like this comes to an end...

Director Jaroslav Papoušek has created a satire on the life of ordinary, small people in Czechoslovakia, in which people are shown very realistically, without any glorification, often not in a favorable way, but without presenting them in a malicious way and always with heart. You may recognize yourself in various aspects and hopefully laugh more with the characters than at them.

We have scheduled two performances at 6pm and 8pm, the second of which is already almost sold out. So be quick!

More about the movie and tickets

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)

Schluckenauer Zipfel faces months of road closures

People in Schluckenauer Zipfel will have to prepare for restrictions on the most important road link to the south in the coming year. According to plans by the ŘSD State Road and Motorway Directorate, the state road I/9 will be completely closed between Nová huť and Svor from March 1, 2026 until October 31. The reason for this is the construction of a new bypass around the village of Svor to divert traffic away from the village. Until now, the I/9 has run right through the middle. In Svor, the I/9 meets the state road I/13, which has been widened to four lanes there in recent years.

The project to build a bypass around Svor has been planned for some time. However, it has only now become known that the Schluckenauer Zipfel will be deprived of its only state road towards the interior of the country for eight months. The detour is planned over a large area via Chříbská and Česká Kamenice, starting in Jiřetín pod Jedlovou. However, the mayors of the municipalities in the Šluknov region are up in arms against this. The towns of Varnsdorf, Krásná Lípa and Rumburk in particular are showing a lack of understanding. Not only do thousands of people use the I/9 to get to work and training every day, the route is also used by emergency services for trips to the hospital in Česká Lípa. There are also regular bus services to Prague. The detour route, on the other hand, is already well utilized.

The mayors are calling for a different technical solution to allow traffic to continue across the I/9 at least alternately in one lane or in two lanes via a temporary bridge. At the very least, the duration of the closure should be significantly shortened. The Ústí district has also joined the demands. The construction project itself is located in the Liberec district. The investor, the ŘSD State Road and Motorway Directorate, has referred to the difficult profile in the vicinity of the road construction site. A full closure is unavoidable.

Municipalities get land at the Milada open-cast mining lake

At one of its last meetings, the current Czech government decided to transfer land at the Milada open-cast mining lake near Ústí nad Labem (Aussig) free of charge. The decision is seen as the first and most important step in the further development of this already popular recreational area. Until now, the land has been owned by the state and managed by the state-owned company Diamo, which looks after former mining areas. In future, the land will be transferred to the Milada Lake Voluntary Association of Municipalities (Dobrovolný svazek obcí Jezero Milada). In addition to Ústí, this includes the municipalities of Chabařovice, Trmice and Řehlovice. A total of 378 plots of land with an area of 8.2 million square meters are involved.

There is only one step left to realize the plans for a recreational area around Lake Milada: the write-off of the lignite reserves under the area around the lake. According to estimates, this amounts to 128 million tons of coal. Although the lake has been open for tourist use for over ten years, the state could theoretically still access the lignite reserves at any time, which would prevent reliable planning. The coal deposits must be written off by the mining authority in consultation with the Ministry of the Environment. This is expected to take place in the course of 2026.

There is already infrastructure for leisure and recreation on the lakeshore. Diamo recently awarded ten-year leases to operators of boat and SUP rentals, snack bars and bars. The long-term contracts will remain valid even after the municipal association takes over the land. With the new ownership structure, however, even more far-reaching projects are possible. These include the "Wild Milada" project (see "Meanwhile in the Czech Republic ... 20/25). The Ústí Zoo, the city of Ústí and the Ústí district are planning a 700-hectare reserve for wild animals from Asia, a bird sanctuary and prehistoric animals such as bison, Przewalski's horses and other offspring in the area of Lake Milada.

North Bohemia's heating industry plans to phase out coal by 2030

The Czech Republic is speeding up its coal phase-out. In North Bohemia, the heart of lignite mining to date, the supply of district heating will no longer be based on lignite by 2030, according to the main heating supplier ČEZ. Coal will be replaced by natural gas and biomass in future. In the long term, the majority state-owned energy company ČEZ is also relying on heat supply from small modular nuclear reactors, hydrogen and waste incineration.

The first steps have already been taken. In June, for example, a new gas boiler went into operation in Prunéřov near Chomutov, which serves as an alternative heat source to the existing coal-fired power plant. In future, it will supply heat to the nearby town of Kadaň, which currently obtains its district heating from the Tušimice coal-fired power plant. To this end, ČEZ is building a 5.7-kilometer-long heat pipeline from Prunéřov to Kadaň. A biomass boiler and other gas boilers are also to be built in Prunéřov. They will supply heat from the 2028/29 heating season.

Prunéřov was once home to the largest coal-fired power plants in the Czech Republic. The Prunéřov I power plant was considered one of the biggest polluters in Europe and was taken off the grid in June 2020.
ČEZ also built five new gas boilers and one kilometer of heating pipeline in Ústí nad Labem in cooperation with the city. This secured district heating for 3,000 households.

ČEZ's other plans on the road to phasing out coal include the construction of a combined heat and power plant in Prunéřov, a small modular reactor in Tušimice and a gas-steam combined cycle power plant in Trmice near Ústí. ČEZ has announced investments of over 4 billion euros in the transformation of the energy industry in the Ústí region alone by 2030.

Czech Republic says goodbye to Cardinal Duka

Last weekend, the Czech Republic bid farewell to the long-serving Archbishop of Prague and 'Cardinal Dominik Duka with a mass in Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral on Hradčany Hill. Duka died on November 4 at the age of 82. He was Archbishop of Prague for more than 12 years until 2022.

The commemoration took place in the presence of the current President Petr Pavel and his two predecessors Václav Klaus and Miloš Zeman. The Requiem in B flat minor by Antonín Dvořák was performed. Dignitaries from other religions and faith communities also paid their last respects to the long-serving archbishop. Duka's body was laid to rest in the crypt of the archbishops in St. Vitus Cathedral. The mortal remains of his predecessors František Tomášek and Miloslav Vlk already rest there.

Duka worked as a priest illegally before 1989 and was imprisoned for two years. He led the Dominican Order in Czechoslovakia from 1986. In 1998, he was appointed Bishop of Hradec Králové (Königgrätz) until he was appointed the new Archbishop of Prague in 2010. He was succeeded in 2022 by the then Bishop of Olomouc, Jan Graubner.

After the death of his predecessor Miloslav Vlk, hopes rested on Duka to continue Vlk's course of opening up. However, these were disappointed time and time again. Duka acted as a conservative guardian of Catholic tradition. One of the highlights of his time in office was the re-erection and consecration of the Marian Column on Old Town Square.

Sudeten German Day 2026 in the Czech Republic for the first time

Next year, the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft will be holding its Sudeten German Day in its old homeland of the Czech Republic for the first time. It traditionally takes place at Whitsun, next year from May 22 to 25, this time in the Moravian metropolis of Brno (Brünn). It is no coincidence that Brno was chosen. Years ago, the second largest city in the Czech Republic was the first to officially commemorate the victims of the expulsion of the German population. For ten years, the most important symbol has been the March of Reconciliation, which always takes place in June in the opposite direction and commemorates the 1945 death march from the Austrian border to Brno.

The decision to choose Brno follows an invitation from the "Meeting Brno" association, which organizes the Reconciliation March, which was extended at the last Sudeten German Day in Regensburg this year.

Premiere for steamboat trips during Advent

For the first time this year, there will be Advent steamboat trips on the Elbe between Bad Schandau and Roudnice nad Labem (Raudnitz). From November 27, the Labská plavební společnost shipping company will be setting off on regular river trips on its historic paddle steamer "Labe" (Elbe) on behalf of the Ústí district. The steamboat trips take place every Thursday to Sunday. The last trip is on December 21.

As the trips are ordered by the Ústí Region, a discounted ticket from the Doprava Ústeckého kraje transport company is valid on all routes and can be purchased via the "DÚKapka" app, which is also available in German. According to the schedule, the steamer runs between Ústí nad Labem and Litoměřice (Leitmeritz) on Thursdays and Fridays, from Ústí to Bad Schandau and back on Saturdays and from Ústí nad Roudnice nad Labem on Sundays.

The Ústí district offers the rental of saloons to retirement homes and school classes. At the same time, with this first-time offer, the district would also like to compensate for the many days on which no steamboat trips were possible this year due to low water levels, according to a press release. The district estimates the cost of the steamboat trips at 1.8 million crowns (75,000 euros).

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The longest chairlift in the Czech Republic is being renovated

The chairlift from Krupka (Graupen) to the summit of Komáří hůrka (Mückenberg) on the ridge of the Eastern Ore Mountains will be renovated over the next 12 months. The aim of the renovation is to modernize the mountain and valley stations as well as the outdoor facilities while preserving or even restoring the historical character. "We want the chairlift to return to its origins. For example, there used to be lamps at the valley station on the terrace, which we want to reinstall," lift manager Marek Ferenc told the daily newspaper "Mladá fronta Dnes". The lift went into operation in 1952.

Important for all fans of the chairlift: the refurbishment will be carried out while the lift is in operation. Apart from regular maintenance, which is carried out several times a year, the lift can be used with restrictions. These are mainly to be expected at the access points to the lift, not on the lift itself. The downtimes of the lift caused by the renovation should be kept to a minimum. This should be the case in March/April next year, when the floors will be renovated and the lift will inevitably have to be shut down.

There are plans to renovate the façade of the valley station and replace the windows and doors. The snack bar will be refurbished and the toilets renovated. In addition, the exhibition on the history and operation of the chairlift will be expanded. This is open to the public.

Repairs and partial thermal insulation are carried out at the mountain station. The drinking water and waste water supply is renewed and the heat supply is converted to a heat pump. A new workshop is being built for the maintenance of the lift seats.

With a length of 2,348 meters, the chairlift is not only the longest lift in the Czech Republic without an intermediate station, according to the operators, but also in the whole of Central Europe. The lift has been a national cultural monument in the Czech Republic since 2013 and has had the status of a historic chairlift since 2022. Following the modernization of the chairlift to the Schneekoppe, it is now also the oldest of its kind, which still functions as it did when it started operating in 1952.

First lynx offspring in the Ore Mountains

For the first time in almost 300 years, a lynx pair has reproduced in the Ore Mountains. According to the Saxon State Office for the Environment, Agriculture and Geology (LfULG), the lynxes Alva (female) and Chapo (male) released last year are the parent animals. Both were released into the wild near Eibenstock in 2024 as part of the ReLynx project to reintroduce these wild cats. According to GPS data, they spent three days together in Alva's territory at the beginning of April. They have now turned into two cubs, which were "caught" by a photo trap at the beginning of the fall. The pregnancy of a female lynx usually lasts 10 weeks. This means that the cubs must have been born in June.

The wolves have also reported offspring again. In the Schluckenauer Zipfel in northern Bohemia alone, wolf experts counted at least 14 cubs on the basis of photo traps. But there may already be more. The wolves have also reintroduced themselves, but probably through immigration from Poland. According to monitoring, their development is going very well. There are now five packs in the Schluckenauer Zipfels region alone. The wolf territory also extends into neighboring Saxony.

Due to the vastness of the Ore Mountains, it is not possible to provide such precise information. A total of seven wolf packs have been confirmed there. Three of them are certain to have offspring this year.

Government helps problem district in Šluknov

The Czech government has approved an aid package worth almost 200 million for the small town of Šluknov in northern Bohemia. The town wants to use the money to buy 14 prefabricated buildings in a housing estate on the south-eastern outskirts of the town. The deal will cost a total of 285 million crowns (11.7 million euros). Šluknov is paying 25 million crowns out of its own pocket, while the Ústí district is contributing a further 60 million crowns.

After taking over the houses, the city intends to demolish a small part in very poor condition and renovate the others. The background to this major project, which is unique in the Czech Republic to date, is the unusually high rate of residents dependent on social welfare. According to the state agency for social integration, almost all of the 1,500 residents are affected. The aim of the joint project is to reduce this rate to 20 percent. The renovation of the houses is to be accompanied by intensive social work, support in finding work, educational projects and debt relief advice. The municipality is also to receive support from the state in this area. The majority of the current residents will be able to continue living in the prefabricated housing estate, while apartments in the region will be found for a small proportion. A further influx of socially disadvantaged people is to be stopped.

The funding commitment was made on Wednesday by the current government, led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, after a year of intensive preparations and negotiations with the state, district and municipality. The opposition parties were also involved, which is why the mayor of Šluknov, Tomáš Kolonečný, assumes that the future government will also continue to support the project.

Stores remain open for the holiday

Monday marks the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Czech Republic. On November 17, 36 years ago, thousands of students and citizens demonstrated for freedom and democracy in Prague. The officially unauthorized assembly was brutally dispersed by armed units. It was seen as the beginning of the Velvet Revolution in what was then Czechoslovakia.

Although the larger stores in the Czech Republic remain closed on many public holidays, November 17 is not one of them. All stores therefore remain open. Only museums are closed on Mondays, as usual.

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)

Parliament elects right-winger as president

The Czech parliament has elected Tomio Okamura as its president at its first session. The leader of the far-right party Svoboda a přímá Demokrace (Freedom and Direct Democracy) was elected with the votes of the future governing parties ANO and Autofahrer as well as his own party. Okamura, who is of Japanese descent, regularly rails against foreigners, minorities and political opponents. His choice of words is often racist and xenophobic, and he calls for the Czech Republic to leave the EU and NATO in the long term.

His election is a deal between the future governing parties. Okamura deliberately did not want a ministerial post where he would have to take on responsibility, but was aiming for the prestigious post of Speaker of Parliament. Okamura had deliberately trampled on parliamentary conventions in the past. His party had even lost significant support in the elections. However, as it is needed for the government, the deal was made. In addition, both the likely future Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Okamura are threatened with legal proceedings. In order to ensure that their immunity as MPs is not revoked, both are dependent on cooperation.

As one of his first official acts, Okamura had the Ukrainian flag removed from parliament. The President of Parliament is nominally the third highest office in the Czech state after the President of the Republic and the President of the Senate.

Czech government resigns

The government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala has submitted its resignation to President Petr Pavel and received its resignation papers. However, the ministers will remain in office on a temporary basis until the new government is formed. The future government consisting of ANO, motorists and SPD adopted its government program this week.

New memorial plaque for Karl May

The writer and spiritual father of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, Karl May, has been honored with a memorial plaque in Chomutov. The plaque was unveiled at the former Hotel Scherber in Chelčický Street. May was visiting friends here in 1897. He came from his home town of Hohenstein-Ernstthal on the other side of the Ore Mountains. Karl May was and still is very popular in the Czech Republic. There has long been a May street in Ústí nad Labem, near a hotel where he stayed for a while and found inspiration for his works near the Schreckenstein.

 

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