Friday

Chronicle of October 16, 2026

39 entries

• The second round of the Senate elections began in 22 Senate districts and will last until Saturday 17 October; about 2.25 million voters are eligible to vote.

  ČTK / České noviny · Blesk.cz

• In a statement of 16 October 2026, President Petr Pavel said that he paid 3,750 euros from his own funds for his transport to a private holiday in Morocco and 15,000 euros as his share of a flight to the municipal elections in Černouček; he said the Office of the President of the Republic neither paid for nor organised the trip.

  ČTK / České noviny · Seznam Zprávy · Novinky.cz
  

• Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said in Brussels on 16 October 2026 that EU leaders will most likely not agree on the Union's multiannual budget by the end of the year but only in February or March; according to him, the next summit on the budget will take place on 26 November.

  ČTK / České noviny · Novinky.cz

• During the night to 16 October 2026, the weed-cutting boat Bolek partly sank on Velký bolevecký rybník in Plzeň; firefighters used booms to stop the spread of the leaked oil substances.

  Deník: Plzeňský kraj · Plzeňská Drbna
  

• The second round of the Senate elections began on 16 October 2026 in 22 of the 27 constituencies and ends on 17 October; in five constituencies the senator was already elected in the first round.

  Seznam Zprávy · Novinky.cz · iDNES.cz
  

• Central Bohemian Region and Prague signed a 30-year contract with České dráhy for suburban train services worth 165 billion crowns; the new electric units are due to start running in 2030.

  ČTK / České noviny
  

• The Office for the Protection of Competition approved the PPF group's purchase from the Kaprain group of companies owning real estate projects around the O2 arena in Prague 9 and the Oaks Prague golf course in Nebřenice.

  ČTK / České noviny
  

• The High Court in Prague overturned the verdict in the case of rigged sports subsidies at Prague City Hall, which had found three of the nine defendants guilty, and returned the case for a new hearing.

  ČTK / České noviny
  

• The second round of the Senate elections began in Czechia, deciding on new senators in 22 districts; voting continues on Saturday.

  ČTK / České noviny
  

• The National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB) recorded 26 cyber incidents in September 2026, the third-highest monthly number in the past year; the most frequent targets were entities in education and public administration.

  ČTK / České noviny · iROZHLAS
  

• A gas heater exploded and caught fire on a restaurant terrace in the centre of Prague, injuring three people.

  iDNES.cz · Pražský deník

• In Prague 17, the Řepští sousedé group and STAN agreed on a joint coalition, so Řepy will have new leadership after the municipal elections.

  Pražský deník · Blesk.cz
  

• A lorry carrying a drilling rig that got stuck on 7 October 2026 under a railway bridge on Vídeňská Street in Prague lacked a permit for oversize transport, according to the City Hall spokesman, and according to the police spokesman one cause of the accident was an unsecured load.

  iDNES.cz, Praha · Pražský deník · ČT24: regiony
  

• Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Aleš Juchelka (ANO) said in the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on 16 October 2026 that his ministry would not lose any National Recovery Plan funds over the conflict of interest of his former adviser, while opposition politicians Martin Kupka (ODS) and Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL) demanded an explanation of the costs to the state, which according to a non-public draft protocol of the Supreme Audit Office amount to about 83 million crowns.

  ČTK / České noviny · iDNES.cz
  

• At the opening of the 36th Autumn Book Fair in Havlíčkův Brod, awards were presented by the President of the Senate and by astronomers.

  ČTK / České noviny · Český rozhlas Vysočina
  

• Six people were injured in a head-on collision of two cars in Jarošov nad Nežárkou in the South Bohemian Region, and a helicopter was deployed at the scene.

  iDNES.cz · Budějcká Drbna

• Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) said in Brussels on 16 October 2026, before the European Council's discussion of migration, that according to him the Czech Republic is preparing for the possibility that it may have to defend its borders against migrants from Western countries.

  Echo24 · Novinky.cz

• At the Smíchov railway station in Prague, a newly built platform 4 and a reconstructed platform 3 are to open on Tuesday 20 October 2026, while platforms 1 and 2 will close; the reconstruction of the station is to be finished at the end of 2028.

  ČTK / České noviny · Pražský deník
  

• Povodí Labe has begun restoring the Holštejn oxbow of the Orlice river near Hradec Králové: excavators on a floating pontoon platform will remove about 4,000 m³ of sediment and two new pools will be created; the work, costing roughly eight million crowns, is to be finished by April 2028.

  Deník: Královéhradecký kraj · iDNES.cz
  

• The Prague Public Transit Company took over another 15 battery-electric Bozankaya SNG 12T trolleybuses on 16 October 2026 and now owns 28 vehicles from a delivery of thirty; from 17 October 2026 they are to partly strengthen trolleybus service on two lines that previously used buses.

  Dopravní podnik hl. m. Prahy · Zdopravy.cz · Pražský deník
  

• The Czech state debt rose by 204.6 billion crowns to 3.882 trillion crowns over the first three quarters of 2026, equal to 43.9 percent of gross domestic product, the Ministry of Finance said in its quarterly report on state debt management.

  ČTK / České noviny · Echo24
  

• The Regional Court in Plzeň has received eight complaints about the municipal elections in the Plzeň Region and the Karlovy Vary Region, three of them concerning the village of Třebčice in the Plzeň area and the counting of votes; others came from Čížkov, Nové Mitrovice, the Plzeň 1 city district and Toužim.

  Plzeňská Drbna · Deník: Plzeňský kraj
  

• Because of the closure of the Pisárecký tunel and the Tunel Hlinky in Brno, South Moravian Region, which lasts from 12 October to 20 November 2026, police are directing traffic at five junctions on the detour routes and have proposed changing the traffic lights at eight junctions; a new public transport lane in Antonína Procházky street is expected to be marked on Monday 19 October 2026.

  Deník: Jihomoravský kraj · iDNES.cz
  

• Conservationists published a report on wolf monitoring in the Czech-Polish borderland covering twelve months from May 2025: in the Broumovsko area near Náchod in the Hradec Králové Region wild animals make up over 90 percent of the wolves' diet and livestock 6.9 percent, and two wolves there carry GPS collars.

  ČTK / České noviny · Ekolist.cz
  

• In Brno, a civic initiative has launched a petition against the coalition with the ODS, for which the Greens face criticism, and is also planning a protest.

  Deník: Jihomoravský kraj · Seznam Zprávy
  

• ČEZ has filed lawsuits in Luxembourg against the blocking of local companies in connection with the Diag Human case and called the measures vexatious.

  ČT24 · Novinky.cz
  

• Deník N reported that Pavel Černý, an unsuccessful Senate candidate of Přísaha in the Znojmo district, asked the local ANO for CZK 50,000 for supporting its candidate Jiří Kyněra in the second round of the election; he did not receive the money and backed Tomáš Třetina of TOP 09.

  Deník N · Seznam Zprávy
  

• After the EU summit in Brussels, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said that Donald Trump's deal with Vladimir Putin on Russian oil deliveries harms Europe's position and that, in his view, Trump is also acting with the November US elections in mind.

  ČTK / České noviny · iDNES.cz

• The Ministry of Defence announced that Minister Jaromír Zůna had instructed Chief of the General Staff Miroslav Hlaváč to propose transferring Radek Haratek, commander of the information and cyber forces, to another post, after the ministry had declined his request to end his service.

  Seznam Zprávy · Hospodářské noviny
  

• In a statement, President Petr Pavel said he had personally paid a total of 18,750 euros, about 456,000 crowns, for his flights to Morocco and back; according to Echo24, the Castle considers the matter closed.

  Echo24
  

• The second round of the Senate elections, in which a third of the Senate of the Czech Republic is being renewed, began on Friday 16 October 2026 and continued the following day.

  ČTK / České noviny · ČT24
  

• The winner of the municipal election in Prague 15 wants to ask for a recount of the votes in one polling district, saying a seat was lost because of the result there.

  Pražský deník · Pražský patriot
  

• In the Karlovy Vary Region, most of the new municipal coalitions after the local elections are known; in Cheb, the coalition will be decided only after the Senate elections.

  ČTK / České noviny · Karlovarská Drbna
  

• The first automated grocery store in the Karlovy Vary Region has opened in Bublava, where customers can also shop without bank identity.

  iDNES.cz: Karlovy Vary · ČRo Karlovy Vary
  

• At the European Council summit in Brussels on 16 October 2026, migration was debated for more than two hours; according to diplomatic sources cited by Politico, the debate was heated, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš used very strong words.

  ČTK / České noviny · iDNES.cz

• The SPD movement filed a motion with the court for a recount of votes from the municipal elections in Karviná in the Moravian-Silesian Region.

  ČTK / České noviny · iROZHLAS
  

• The Jedno Ústí coalition, which won the municipal elections, is considering abolishing the city districts in Ústí nad Labem; the opposition movements Vaše Ústí and Za lepší Střekov and representatives of the districts are against it and demand a referendum.

  iROZHLAS · Český rozhlas Sever (Ústí, Karlovy Vary) · iDNES.cz · Deník: Ústecký kraj · Novinky.cz
  

• The European Commission told the Czech News Agency that, in its assessment, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is in a potential conflict of interest in connection with the management of cohesion and agricultural funds, and that the RSVP Trust does not sufficiently mitigate the situation.

  ČTK / České noviny · Seznam Zprávy
  

• A two-day autumn book fair opened in Havlíčkův Brod on 16 October 2026, with a record 167 exhibitors registered.

  Seznam Zprávy
  

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