Daily news summary

Rakušan elected chairman of Mayors and Independents

Vít Rakušan, the mayor of Kolín, has been elected leader of the Mayors and Independents, the smallest party in the Czech lower house, at a congress in Prague. He was the only candidate for the post and replaces outgoing chairman Petr Gazdík.

Mr. Rakušan says he aims to not only help the Mayors and Independents remain in the Chamber of Deputies but to take at least 10 percent of the vote.

He says if the party play a role in the next Czech government they will push for reform of education, the social system and the public administration.

Babiš mulls news post of deputy PM for economy

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is considering creating the new position of vice prime minister for the economy. He revealed the idea in an interview in Saturday’s edition of Lidové noviny. Mr. Babiš also said he planned to keep the number of ministers in his cabinet the same but wanted to introduce a third deputy PM. This could be Karel Havlíček, the future minister of industry and trade, the newspaper wrote.

Also set to join the ANO-Social Democrats front bench is Vladimír Kremlík, who will take the transport portfolio.

iDnes: Zeman’s office funded book published by Putin supporters

A book that President Miloš Zeman’s office funded was published by a group that supports Russian president Vladimir Putin, iDnes.cz reported. The publication about the game park at the Czech president’s Lány residence received CZK 1.4 million in public money, the news site said.

The publisher then donated CZK 100,000 to the pro-Putin nationalist group Řád národa (Order of the Nation), which was running in elections to the lower house and whose newspaper it also produces. Mr. Zeman helped launch the book at Lány.

Mothers to hold breastfeeding protest at banks

Czech mothers are planning protests against a bank accused of refusing to allow a woman to breastfeed on its premises. Mothers around the country came together on Facebook and decided to breastfeed their children at branches of Raiffeisenbank bank at 11 am on Monday.

The main gathering will be at the branch on Prague’s Wenceslas Square where the conflict between a mother and security took place. The bank said its employee had not thrown the woman out but only asked her to cover herself. It sent a letter of apology to the client in question.

Swimmer Kubová first Czech to make cut for Tokyo Olympics

Swimmer Simona Kubová has become the first Czech to make the cut for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo after she won the 100 metres backstroke at an event in Eindhoven in a time of 59.66 seconds on Saturday. Kubová also reached the limit required for this year’s swimming world championship in South Korea.

The 27-year-old’s time on Saturday was just a tenth of a second outside her own Czech record, which she set two years ago under her maiden name Baumrtová.

Jágr scores twice to boost Kladno’s chances of promotion

The Czech ice hockey legend Jaromír Jágr scored two goals for Kladno in a key game on Friday night. The 47-year-old helped the club to a 3:1 win over Chomutov that gave Kladno an eight-point lead on their opponents and hugely boosted their chances of winning promotion to Czech hockey’s top flight.

Jágr, who began his career at Kladno, earned the second most points in NHL history and is considered one of the greatest players of all time.

Weather forecast

Sunday should see some rain and even snow in the Czech Republic, with maximum temperatures of up to 10 degrees Celsius. Daytime highs are then expected to climb through the week to reach up to 20 degrees Celsius at Easter weekend.