The speaker of the Czech Senate, Jaroslav Kubera, has died at the age of 72, a spokesman for the upper house said on Monday. Kubera was a political veteran of the Civic Democrats party and had been a Senate member for more than 20 years. He had been the speaker of the body since November 2018. Kubera became well known among other things for being a passionate defender of cigarette smoking. “It would be constantly clear and we would all burn up in the heat,” he said on another occasion.

Source: Punch January 20, 2020 15:11 UTC