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10/28/2026
President Petr Pavel bestowed the Order of the White Lion, the highest Czech state honour, on four individuals at a ceremony at Prague Castle on Wednesday night. Gymnast Věra Čáslavská and film director Miloš Forman received the honour posthumously, while it also went to actress Iva Janžurová and Helena Illnerová, a former president of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
President Pavel handed out a total of 51 honours in the ceremony, which represented the culmination of this year's Czechoslovak Independence Day.
He awarded the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the second-highest state honour, posthumously to a former speaker of the Senate, Jaroslav Kubera; the Czechoslovak diplomat Vladimír Vochoč; the dissident and first post-1989 foreign minister Jiří Dienstbier; and the historian, dissident and diplomat Jaroslav Šedivý.
The Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was also awarded in memoriam to Eliška Wagnerová, a former senator, president of the Supreme Court and vice-president of the Constitutional Court. Pavel also honoured social worker and human rights activist Elena Gorolová, who the Office of the President said had made a significant contribution to securing compensation for women who were unlawfully sterilised. The seventh recipient of the second-highest honour was Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines, one of the children saved from the Nazis by Nicholas Winton, who officials said had played a key role in spreading his legacy, particularly among young people.
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10/28/2026
President Petr Pavel and his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb, have discussed a call the latter and the prime minister of Norway made to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. In a phone conversation on Wednesday Mr. Pavel and Mr. Stubb also spoke about the outlook for a common European position on potential peace negotiations pertaining to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
In a statement on social media, the Czech president’s office said the outcome of any peace talks would have to represent a credible guarantee of peace for Ukraine and for Europe.
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10/28/2026
The Student Solidarity Committee, which brings together schools across Czechia, has called a strike on November 3, representatives announced in Brno on Wednesday at a protest against planned changes to the funding of Czech Television and Czech Radio.
Staff at the two public broadcasters earlier declared a strike on the same day against plans to abolish the current license fee system and bring them under the state budget. This will lead to lower budgets and critics say could facilitate political interference.
The Student Solidarity Committee called on universities, schools and other bodies to join their strike.
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10/28/2026
President Petr Pavel promoted Chief of the General Staff Miroslav Hlaváč to the rank of army general, the highest rank in the Czech Army, on Wednesday, which is Czechoslovak Independence Day.
The head of state also promoted Tomáš Hůlka, director general of the Prison Service, to the rank of lieutenant-general, thereby granting him the highest rank awarded within the security forces. In total, Mr. Pavel promoted 16 officers to mark the anniversary of the founding of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, twice as many as a year earlier.
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10/28/2026
MP David Pražák has announced his decision to leave government leaders ANO. In a statement on social media on Tuesday evening, he said he would remain an unaffiliated MP in the Chamber of Deputies. This means the governing coalition now has a majority of 107 in the 200-seat lower house.
Mr. Pražák said he had made the move for personal reasons and because of the encroachment of national politics into regional affairs. He said the manner in which the first reading of a bill to change the funding of Czech Television and Czech Radio took place in the Chamber of Deputies had been a factor in his decision, albeit not a decisive one.
He is the first MP to leave the party whose ticket they were elected on during the term of the current government.
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10/28/2026
It should be mainly sunny in Czechia on Thursday, with an average high temperature of 11 degrees Celsius. The following days are expected to see cloudy skies and lower temperatures.
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10/28/2026
People in Czechia have been marking the 108th anniversary of the founding of the independent Czechoslovak Republic on October 28, 1918. Traditional commemorative events and public gatherings have taken place in Prague, including a ceremony at the National Memorial at Vítkov at which President Petr Pavel, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and other senior officials placed wreathes at the tomb of the unknown soldier. In the evening Mr. Pavel will present annual state honours at Prague Castle.
Memorial events have also held in Lány, Plzeň, Ostrava, Hradec Králové and Znojmo. To mark the public holiday, certain government offices and ministries were to the public, as were the buildings of the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and the Straka Academy, home of the Office of the Government.
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10/28/2026
Unions at the Czech National Theatre have declared a strike alert, saying they are opposed to steps taken by the government and Ministry of Culture, which they say threaten freedom of speech, the media and the arts. The move was announced by actors on stage after a performance at the historic National Theatre building in Prague.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, union representatives demanded the removal of Oto Klempíř as minister of culture. For his part, Mr. Klempíř said actors had the right to express disagreement. He said the government was acting prudently but also supporting the arts through concrete measures and investment.
The government plans to end the license fee system for public broadcasters and bring them under the state budget. This will lead to lower budgets and critics say it may also facilitate political interference. Other steps, such as reducing the budget of state agency the Czech Audiovisual Fund, have also led to tensions between the government and many in the arts community.
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10/27/2026
The Czech and Slovak prime ministers, Andrej Babiš and Robert Fico, unveiled a sculpture in the garden of the Office of the Government in Prague on Tuesday, the eve of Independent Czechoslovak State Day. The work by Slovak sculptor Vladimír Durbák is named Medzi nami (Between Us, in Slovak) and is intended to symbolise the friendship between the two nations.
Mr. Babiš said at the unveiling ceremony that the next joint meeting of the Czech and Slovak cabinets would take place on November 10.
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10/27/2026
The Ministry of Culture is removing Petr Dvořák, a former director general of Czech Television, from his position as chairman of the board of the Czech Audiovisual Fund. The minister of arts, Oto Klempíř, said on Tuesday that Mr. Dvořák had a different outlook on the Fund’s financial management and had failed to identify cost-saving measures.
The government recently refused to approve the Fund’s proposed budget for 2027, with Mr. Klempíř demanding a reduction of approximately CZK 400 million in planned support for the audiovisual sector next year. Mr. Dvořák and the rest of the board rejected this position.
The Czech Audiovisual Fund operates under the Ministry of Culture. It finances and supports the country’s film, television, animation, video game and wider audiovisual industries.
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