Fiala

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Milos Vucevic welcomed Czech PM Petr Fiala outside the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade on Wednesday.

Fiala, who is on an official visit to Serbia, was given a guard of honour, red carpet welcome as the national anthems of the two countries were being played.

The ceremony was followed by a tete-a-tete meeting between Vucevic and Fiala.

Amidst a national day of mourning, the Czech Republic's embassy in Bulgaria solemnly lowered its flag to half-mast, paying tribute to the victims of the tragic mass shooting at Prague University. In a poignant display of remembrance, flickering mourning candles now stand in front of the embassy building in Sofia, joined by the EU flag also flying at half-mast.

The Czech Republic has declared December 23rd as a day of mourning following the devastating shooting incident at Prague University, as reported by Reuters.

In the aftermath of the tragic event, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic conveyed that efforts are ongoing to identify the victims, and their nationalities remain to be determined.

Czech-born literary giant Milan Kundera died on July 11, aged 94, at his Paris home. Born in Brno, Kundera played a significant role in the intellectual revival that culminated in the Prague Spring in the late 60s. In 1975, with his work banned amid the "normalisation" imposed on Czechoslovak society by the Communist authorities, the author decamped to France in exile.

They also raised their voices against the European Union and NATO.
The organizers of the demonstrations, who come from numerous right-wing groups and smaller groups, including the Communist Party, said that the Czech Republic should be militarily neutral and should ensure direct contacts with gas suppliers, including Russia, Reuters reported.

However, it is still unclear whether the new Czech government - a centre-right coalition of five parties led by university professor Petr Fiala - will be truly devoted to and even equipped to deal with these challenging tasks, and what position it will take in the actual negotiations on these complex regional issues.