The director general of the State Agricultural Intervention Fund (SZIF), Petr Dlouhý, announced his departure in a press release of the fund on 20 October 2026. He is to leave at the end of October.[1][2]
Reasons and succession
Dlouhý cited personal reasons and explicitly rejected any link to political pressure. The fund will be led temporarily by his deputy Filip Sova. A selection procedure for a new director general is to be announced soon after Dlouhý leaves, according to spokeswoman Eva Češpiva.[1][3]
Dlouhý headed the fund from December 2022, when he succeeded the current agriculture minister Martin Šebestyán (SPD). According to the fund, it modernised its operations during his tenure and introduced continuous monitoring of agricultural land using satellite images.[1][2]
Context
The departure comes at a time when the fund is dealing with subsidies for the holding Agrofert, associated with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO). In February 2026 the fund's supervisory board called on management to recover subsidies paid to the group in 2017 to 2021. In April the fund decided not to recover the European subsidies retroactively, because legal analyses suggested it would probably not succeed in court.[1]
Chronology
- — Dlouhý, director general of the State Agricultural Intervention Fund, announced his departure from the post, citing personal reasons and rejecting any link to politics. Novinky.cz Hospodářské noviny
Sources
- Novinky.cz — 20 October 2026
- Echo24 — 20 October 2026
- Hospodářské noviny — 20 October 2026