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Psychiatrist Džamila Stehlíková need not apologize for her remarks about the health of former president Miloš Zeman during his hospitalization in October of 2021, the Municipal Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday.  Assessing media footage of the then-president, Stehlíková expressed the view that the president's abstinence in the hospital had led to the onset of delirium tremens, among other things, and indirectly questioned his ability to perform his duties. The judge concluded that Stehlíková had proven the veracity of her judgments and that as an expert she had sufficient publicly available sources of information to assess Zeman's condition at the time. The judge also stressed that as a public figure  Zeman had to accept the fact that he was under public scrutiny. In addition to an apology, Zeman had also demanded CZK 1 million for the Fund for Children at Risk, which was also rejected by the court.

Confidence in the Czech economy fell by 0.2 points to 96.8 points in October compared with the previous month, according to data released by the Czech Statistics Office on Thursday. Businesses were less optimistic than in September, while consumer confidence in the economy rose by 2.8 points to 100.7 points. Experts point to the fact that consumer confidence rose for the second month in a row in October and was slightly above its long-term average for the first time since June this year. Compared to previous months, the number of households worried about the deterioration of the overall economic situation in the Czech Republic decreased. The number of people expecting an improvement in their financial situation has increased. Even so, almost a third of consumers still say they can barely make ends meet, and almost a tenth have to borrow or dip into savings.

The interior and justice ministries have jointly drafted a proposed amendment to the law which would provide compensation of CZK 100 000 to people persecuted by the Communist regime. Two groups of dissidents would be eligible to receive the one-off compensation payment. The first are those subjected to secret police surveillance, who had to report being away from home or suffer frequent raids by the police. The second group consists of people who were forced to emigrate by the communist secret police. The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes estimates that the legislation could help hundreds of dissidents.

The Vatican‘s Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Prime Minister Petr Fiala  signed  a treaty between the Czech Republic and the Vatican in Prague on Thursday. The Czech Republic is one of the last European countries to sign a treaty regulating relations with the Vatican. It took two decades to agree on the wording of the treaty which does not address the state's property relations with the Catholic Church. It protects citizens' freedom of religion and legally anchors, for example, clerical services in social and health care institutions or in prisons and the army.