Czech news in brief for July 28: Tuesday's top afternoon headlines

Police have dropped the investigation and will not request the extradition of Motorist honorary president and MP Filip Turek over alleged online hate speech, iRozhlas.cz reported on Tuesday. The case was prompted when local newspaper Deník N drew attention to dozens of statements posted by Turek on Facebook and other social media platforms that could legally qualify as racist and Nazi-glorifying.

Beware what you post. Turek has since apologized for some statements but denied having been the author of some of them. The case also played a role in President Petr Pavel's decision not to approve Turek's nomination to any ministerial post, leading to a months-long dispute between the president and government.

The Senate is due to discuss tomorrow a draft bill to increase parental benefits from CZK 350,000 to CZK 400,000 starting next year. The coalition-backed law, a key measure in the government's plans to boost Czechia's free-falling birth rate, would also grant parents of twins (or more) double that amount for any child born from January 1, 2027.

Hard data. Czechia was long one of Europe's top performers in terms of births, but has seen its birth rate plummet to historic lows over the past four years. The latest estimates forecast another record low for 2026 with less than 75,000 live births.

Monday was the deadliest day on Czech roads of the year so far as six people died in car accidents and five were injured, according to police statistics. A total of 33 people have died on Czech roads since the beginning of July, traditionally one of the year's deadliest months as people go on holiday.

On the upside, road traffic deaths in Czechia reached a historic low last year with less than 430 fatalities, in line with the per capita average in the EU.

Czech police have detained 169 people in the first half of the year for illegally crossing Czech borders, according to the latest statistics. Illegal transit migration increased by more than 200 percent compared to the same period last year, with the vast majority of foreigners being Russians trying to transit through the Czech Republic to get to Germany.

Marginal phenomenon. Despite the strong increase compared to last year, illegal border crossings remain a highly marginal phenomenon in Czechia, with little to no impact on the country's security situation.

Meteorologists at the CzechGlobe Institute for Global Change Research of the Czech Academy of Sciences warned that the upcoming heatwave could once more push temperatures up to 40 degrees, significantly worsening risks of extreme drought and wildfires. "Very high temperatures will probably persist until August 4-8," scientists warned, although some other forecasts plan for a cooling of temperatures a bit sooner.

In related news, operators of the Krkonoše national park have also issued a wildfire warning and asked visitors to immediately report any signs of potential fire to local authorities.