President Petr Pavel has vetoed a controversial bill that would have increased the salaries of top politicians by almost 7% this year, while leaving those of judges and state prosecutors virtually stagnant following increases in previous years, the Presidential Office announced today.
The bill will thus go back to the Chamber of Deputies for reconsideration, which could override the president’s veto.
Pavel said he disagreed with the way lawmakers dealt with the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the salary amendment, to which the adopted law is supposed to be a response, especially in relation to setting the salary base for judges this year. In a letter to the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Marketa Pekarova Adamova (TOP 09), he also criticised the retroactive nature of the changes.
According to Pavel, the government’s salary amendment is again only a temporary solution. However, he also disagrees with the opposition’s proposals to freeze politicians’ salaries altogether.
Pavel was using his power to return a law to parliament for the second time. In September, Pavel vetoed a bill that would have allowed the courts to stop deciding some disputes in chambers with lay judges, formerly known as people’s judges. The lower house then overrode the veto.
Debates on salary increases were held in both houses of parliament. The opposition ANO and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) failed to push through a freeze on top politicians’ salaries until the end of 2029. The Senate eventually adopted no resolution on the bill. The president was therefore given it to sign as adopted after the expiry of the one-month deadline, which ended on Sunday.
Salaries are calculated on the basis of the salary base, which is the product of the average wage in the national economy in each of the preceding years and a statutory coefficient. Last year, the salaries of top politicians remained at the previous year’s level due to one of the adjustments in the government’s consolidation package.
Last May, the Constitutional Court abolished the statutory coefficient with effect from this year, due to a reduction in judges’ salaries, permanently changing the coefficient from 3 to 2.822.
According to representatives of the Judges Union, the current amendment repeats the reduction for judges that the Constitutional Court annulled. Moreover, the law is retroactive because it applies to January salaries. According to the complainants, the legislation violates the principles of the rule of law. The Judicial Board has also criticised it.
The amendment returns the coefficient of 3 to law, but sets the salary bases for this year directly. For top politicians and other officials, the base is CZK 101,364 per month, and for judges it is CZK 121,685. Judges’ salaries would thus essentially stagnate, since last year they were calculated on a monthly base of CZK 120,951 after the Constitutional Court intervened.
The draft also directly sets the salary base for state prosecutors at CZK 109,516.5 this year. The amendment also introduces a lump sum compensation for the spouse or partner of the President, taken from the existing compensation of the head of state.
Calculations from the draft show that the salary of an ordinary legislator will increase this year by CZK 7,100, to CZK 109,500 per month. The salary of the Czech President will be CZK 365,000, up CZK 23,800 from last year.
An overview of gross monthly salaries of selected top officials in crowns:
| Post | 2019 | 2020, 2021 and February to December 2022 (vs. January 2022) | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| President | 274,500 | 302,700 (321,000) | 341,200 | 341,200 | 365,000 |
| Speaker of the House and Prime Minister | 221,200 | 243,800 (258,600) | 274,800 | 274,900 | 294,000 |
| Deputy Prime Minister | 189,900 | 209,400 (222,000) | 236,000 | 236,000 | 252,400 |
| Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and minister | 157,100 | 173,200 (183,700) | 195,300 | 195,300 | 208,900 |
| Chairman of parliamentary committee, commission and delegation | 115,900 | 127,800 (135,600) | 144,100 | 144,100 | 154,100 |
| Deputy and senator | 82,400 | 90,800 (96,300) | 102,400 | 102,400 | 109,500 |
