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Czech president Miloš Zeman and his Slovak counterpart Zuzana Čaputová opened the Czech House in Bratislava on Saturday, which will house a Czech Centre as well as CzechTrade, CzechTourism and CzechInvest offices. Mr. Zeman said that he sees it as the fulfillment of his dream.

The event was preceeded by a symbolic laying of wreaths by the Comenius University in the Slovak capital, where student demostrations for democracy took place on November 16, 1989.

Neither the Social Democrats nor Tomio Okamura’s Freedom and Direct Democracy would have made the five-percent threshold to reach the Czech lower house if elections had been held last month, suggests a newly published poll conducted for Czech Television by the Kantar CZ agency. Both parties would have got 4.5 percent and exited the Chamber of Deputies, the survey indicates.

Government leaders ANO would have received the backing of 31.5 percent of respondents, ahead of the Pirates on 17 percent and the Civic Democrats on 12.5 percent.

Czech President Miloš Zeman and Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček will travel to Berlin on Saturday to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the eve of the festivities, President Zeman will meet with the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and former European Commissioner Günter Verheugen.

On Saturday, the Czech head of state, along with his Visegrad Four counterparts, will be received by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel. Together they will attend the main commemorative event at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße.

Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček will represent the Czech Republic at the festivities at the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday evening.

The Office of the President invited pro-Russian activists from the Crimean Tatar group Kyrym birligi (Crimean Unity) to an event at Prague Castle on Monday marking the anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia, news site DeníkN reported. The activists later wrote on Facebook that President Miloš Zeman had recognised the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea as being part of Russia.

Mr. Zeman’s spokesman did not deny the activists had been asked to the event but said the president continued to regard the annexation of Crimea as unlawful.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Prague criticised the invitation of the activists to Prague Castle. The Czech minister of foreign affairs, Tomáš Petříček, told DeníkN he would not invite them to events organised by his office.

In line with tradition, President Miloš Zeman appointed new army and police generals at Prague Castle on the anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s founding.

Among those raised to the highest rank were the head of the General Inspectorate of the Security Forces Radim Dragoun, Commander of the Cyber Force and Information Operations Miroslav Feix and the head of the Military History Institute Aleš Knížek.

The president once again rejected the prime minister’s proposal to raise the head of the country’s counter-intelligence service BIS Michal Koudelka to the rank of general.

The president has been highly critical of the work of the counter-intelligence service. In a recent interview on commercial TV Barrandov, President Zeman said the BIS director should focus on real economic crime in the Czech Republic rather than engaging in a “fictitious hunt for Russian and Chinese spies”.

President Miloš Zeman is being treated for a nutritional disorder resulting in muscle loss and impaired muscle function, notable especially in the legs, according to a report released by the Central Military Hospital in Prague on Thursday.

During the president’s four day stay in hospital he received comprehensive treatment focused on the training of walking and standing stereotypes, supplemented by other rehabilitation procedures. Intensified nutrition was applied intravenously.

President Zeman has dropped 20 kilos in the past two years and suffers from loss of appetite, the report said. He was also found to be dehydrated and complained he had balance problems.

The president’s spokesman earlier described the hospitalization as a "reconditioning stay“. According to earlier reports, Zeman, 75, has low blood pressure, diabetes and neuropathy that makes walking difficult.

A number of leading opposition politicians will not be attending the traditional award-giving ceremony at Prague Castle on the occasion of Czechoslovak Independence Day on October 28th.

According to the ctk news agency they were either not invited or will refuse the invitation in protest against President Zeman’s behaviour.

The leader of TOP 09 Jiří Pospíšil, who failed to receive an invitation, said Zeman was denigrating the holiday by awarding his friends and failing to invite his critics to what should be a state ceremony on the country’s Independence Day.

The head of the Civic Democrats Petr Fiala and the leader of the Pirate Party Ivan Bartoš likewise failed to get an invitation.

Scrutiny regarding the handling of funds by the country’s two public broadcasters – Czech Television and Czech Radio – should be handled by the politically independent Supreme Audit Office instead of Parliament, according to a proposal submitted in the lower house by four Social Democrat members of the Chamber of Deputies.

The proposal was made amid an ongoing dispute in the lower-house, where the Communists and the Freedom and Direct Democracy party are blocking approval of Czech Television’s annual budgets.

Czech Television stated via its social media that its management is already subject to a multi-level audit and that it would not be opposed to scrutiny from the Supreme Audit Office.

President Miloš Zeman was released from hospital on Sunday after undergoing what has been described as a four-day “reconditioning stay".

His spokesman told journalists the treatment was to get the president in good shape for the national holiday celebrations on October 28.

Zeman, 75, has low blood pressure, diabetes and polyfunctional neuropathy that makes walking difficult.

President Miloš Zeman has called on his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to continue cooperation between the Czech Republic and China. In a letter to the Chinese head of state, published on Prague Castle’s website on Thursday, he mentioned for instance the development of direct air connections between the countries or the renewal of cultural cooperation.

Mr Zeman said he had no sympathy for the actions of Prague communal politicians and said that the Czech government fully respected the “One China” policy.

Earlier this month, China terminated its sister city agreement with Prague and suspended all official contacts with the Czech capital, following the Prague municipal government’s decision to terminate the deal.