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Czech senators have rejected the proposal to mark the Day of Samizdat on October 12, as it was approved by the lower house of Parliament earlier this year. According to the Senate, the day celebrating the production of illicit printed materials under the pre-1989 Communist regime should fall on April 27, which marks the anniversary of the founding of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted in 1978.

An amendment tabled by a group of coalition MPs proposed to celebrate the history of Samizdat on October 12, when a group of 92 Czech and Slovak samizdat publishers wrote an open letter to the then Communist president Gustáv Husák in 1988 condemning the jailing of a colleague.

The Ministry of Finance has downgraded its growth forecast for this year, predicting that GDP will increase by 1.1 percent. In April, the ministry predicted a growth of 1.4 percent. According to Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura, the deterioration in the outlook is due to a revision of GDP data from previous years, carried out by the Czech Statistics Office.

The ministry expects the Czech economy to see a stronger recovery next year, with GDP growing by 2.7 percent. Growth will be driven mainly by household consumption, which will grow by 3.9 percent, according to the forecast.

The Senate has criticized the newly-digitized system of construction permits arguing that it has fundamental flaws and the issue needs to be addressed before it causes irreparable damage. The upper chamber on Wednesday passed a resolution saying that the Ministry of Regional Development, which is responsible for the bungled system, should get a crisis manager and establish a working group with representatives of building authorities and the Chamber of Architects so as to resolve the persistent problems. In the course of the three-hour debate, senators warned of dire economic consequences, including a mass exodus of civil servants from the sector and possible lawsuits against the state for delays in construction due to the inability to process construction permits. The head of the Czech Chamber of Architects, Jan Kasl, said that he welcomed the Senate's stand.

The Senate has passed a government-proposed bill opening the way for postal voting for Czechs living abroad. The bill was supported by 56 out of 68 senators present. The amendment means that expats living abroad will no longer have to travel long distances to cast their ballot. It will now go to the president for final approval and should come into force next year in time for the 2025 general elections. Its passage through Parliament was hindered by the opposition parties who argued that it could be easily abused. Czechs living abroad have long lobbied for this possibility.