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Friday marks the start of the 2022 local municipal and Senate elections in Czechia. Voting booths open at 2pm on Friday and will close at 10pm before reopening on Saturday from 8am to 2pm. Voters are reminded to bring identification with them in order to be able to cast their ballot.

A total of 178 candidates are competing for 27 seats in the Senate. Meanwhile, 195,214 people are running in the local municipal elections. In both cases the candidate pool is lower in number than in the previous elections.

In his Thursday address to the UN Security Council, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called for the establishment  of a special international tribunal to "prosecute the crime of aggression committed by Russia". His was the first address made by a representative of Czechia to the Security Council in nearly 30 years, Czech Radio reports.

Recalling the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, Mr Lipavský said that it is necessary to once and for all reject the imperialist desires of Russia and its colonialist policy. He said that Russia’s aggression is "perhaps the most dangerous challenge to global peace in recent decades".

He also said that, per capita, Czechia is hosting the largest number of Ukrainian refugees, more than 400,000.

Czechia, he said, was shocked by the atrocities committed in Bucha, Irpin and other places in Ukraine and praised that country’s determination to defend itself.

The way in which pensions are raised to keep in touch with inflation could change, Labour Minister Marian Jurečka said at a press conference on Thursday. The adjustments, which are set to be presented as a legislation amendment by the government next year, count on changes to the base pension rate, which is the same for all citizens. The changes should help people who have low pensions, Mr Jurečka said.

To counter the sharp rise in inflation, the government enacted two extraordinary pension increases this year, on top of the standard rise that takes place in January. However, current pension legislation means that extraordinary rises increase the size of the reward side of the pension, which takes into consideration the salary that the retired individual used to earn and how many years they worked for. It can therefore be perceived as benefiting those with higher pensions more.

This year’s Jaroslav Seifert Prize will be awarded to poet, essayist and art historian Josef Kroutvor. The jury decided to give the award to Mr Kroutvor for his book Poletování jednoho ptáčka / Vzpomínání a listování as well as for his ongoing work as an essayist, the Czech News Agency reported on Thursday citing Lucie Nekvasilová from the Charter 77 Foundation, which has been handing out the prize since 1986.

Mr Kroutvor, who is 80 years old, studied at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University. In 1970 he started working for the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague where he focused on the history of posters. During the normalisation period some of his work came out via dissident samizdat publications where his pen name was Josef K. He is set to receive the award in person in November at the Mayor’s Residence within the Municipal Library of Prague.