President appoints two new constitutional judges

President Petr Pavel has appointed two new constitutional judges, lawyer Lucie Dolanská Bányaiová and Supreme Administrative Court judge Zdeněk Kühn, who took their oaths in a ceremony at Prague Castle on Tuesday afternoon. All 15 positions in the Czech Constitutional Court have now been filled after a long period when the president struggled to find candidates that both the Senate and the public would approve of.

Since Kateřina Šimáčková resigned as constitutional judge at the end of 2021, one position in the court has been empty, and with Radovan Suchánek's term coming to an end in November this year, the number of judges dropped to 13. The Senate approved Mr. Pavel's nomination of Robert Fremr in the summer, but he was later forced to give up his candidacy after information came to light about controversial rulings he had made during the communist era. Another of the president's proposed candidates, Pavel Simon, did not receive the backing of the Senate.

Since taking up office, Mr. Pavel has appointed five other constitutional judges in addition to the two new ones: Josef Baxa, Kateřina Ronovská, Jan Wintr, Daniela Zemanová and Veronika Křestťanová.