Miloš Vystrčil is the President of the Senate and a member of the ODS who awards the silver commemorative medals of the President of the Senate.

Miloš Vystrčil in a photograph from 2021
Miloš Vystrčil in a photograph from 2021Photo: Jindřich Nosek (NoJin), 2021 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Miloš Vystrčil is the President of the Senate of the Czech Republic and a member of the ODS.[1][2]

Silver medal of the President of the Senate

The President of the Senate awards silver commemorative medals on St Wenceslas Day, that is, on Czech Statehood Day. They go to figures who have excelled in their field or contributed to the good reputation of Czechia abroad. The medals are received by scientists, artists, athletes and other public figures, and in the past institutions have received them too.[1][2]

At the ceremony on 28 September 2026 in Prague, Vystrčil honoured seventeen figures, whom he chose from more than a hundred nominations.[1][2] He called the laureates the “salt of the earth”.[1] For the late Václav Benda, the medal was accepted by his son, the MP Marek Benda (ODS), and the theatre director Dušan Pařízek is to receive his at a later date. [2] In his speech Vystrčil expressed the wish that they would never again have to live “blandly, insipidly and normalised”. [3] Among those honoured were the economist Jan Švejnar, the ice hockey players David Pastrňák and Jakub Voráček, the paramedic Petra Homolová, the human rights advocate Elena Gorolová, the spouses Václav and Kamila Benda, and Darja Stomatová with Ján Schürger of Czech Television. [2] Already in May 2026 he had presented a medal to the French economist Philippe Aghion, a Nobel Prize laureate in economics, for supporting dialogue between scientists and politicians.[2] Aghion gave a lecture in the Senate on innovation, economic growth and Europe’s position in global competition. [2] On 5 October 2026, the 90th anniversary of the birth of Václav Havel, a memorial plaque to Havel was unveiled in the Senate as part of the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Senate. [4]

The plaque at the sala terrena in the Wallenstein Garden bears words that Havel spoke during his first visit to the Senate in 1997. [4]

At the unveiling Vystrčil said that the criticism of the behaviour of the powerful and their lack of self-reflection, which Havel pointed out, is in his view relevant for today’s politicians as well. [4]

Timeline

  • — The President of the Senate, Miloš Vystrčil (ODS), presented silver commemorative medals to seventeen figures, among them the economist Jan Švejnar and the ice hockey players David Pastrňák and Jakub Voráček. → ČTK / České noviny ČT24

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Sources

  1. ČTK / České noviny
  2. ČT24
  3. ČTK / České noviny — 28 September 2026
  4. ČTK / České noviny — 5 October 2026