Czech Republic

The vaccinated are already ignoring the pandemic on a personal level - and the unvaccinated are too. (Un)vaccination has become a hard political stance and nothing can be done about it.

Václav Havel, for what is sure, had generally no great respect towards authorities, certainly not for the bureaucratic authorities of the \"very real socialism\" that ruled over in his homeland.

Unfortunately, we will not celebrate the fifth year of the Bureaucracy Index in the Czech Republic with a reduction in the administrative burden. The bureaucratic burden on small businesses increased by 49 hours year-on-year to 272 hours.

Throughout the last year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed weaknesses in healthcare, education, digitalization, and data collection, just to name a few. The shortages of essential goods experienced by many countries during the pandemic has inspired some to turn inwards.

On January 20, 2021, the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic approved an amendment to the Food Act proposed by the SPD, which implements an unprecedented anti-market measure in the form of food sales quotas into Czech legislation.

Anyone who thinks that the German parliamentary elections were particularly exciting and uncertain in their results has not yet dealt with the hot campaign phase in the Czech Republic. There, the new Chamber of Deputies will be elected on Friday and Saturday this week.

If you look at the political map of Europe these days, you cannot miss the distinctive success of populist movements in Central Europe, not to mention the alliance of Hungarian and Polish governments. With a group of participants from the region, we discussed populism in the Visegrád (V4) countries and its relevance for political communication during the online workshop series \"The Story of Visegrád\".

What does populism mean? Why does populism spread across the world & across Europe. Why did populists come into power? Why does populism try to change the core of Europe and the European Union? And why is populism so strong in the Visegrád Group, especially in Poland and Hungary. There is no doubt, populism fueled a widespread crisis of democracy.

After some initial doubts about the real intentions of this endeavour, Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest incorporated the 3SI into their portfolios of Central European cooperation formats in which they participate. Strong U.S. support for the project makes the initiative more attractive for its reluctant members.

Free press and freedom of speech are among democracy’s essential prerequisites; however, they should not be taken for granted. Published by the Republikon Institute, with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, The State of the Media in the Visegrád Countries provides a detailed insight into the media status in Central Europe.