The Czech Republic is a unitary parliamentary republic governed under a constitution adopted on 16 December 1992 and in force since 1 January 1993. The head of state is President Petr Pavel, directly elected in 2023 and in office since 9 March that year; the head of government is Prime Minister Andrej Babiš of ANO, appointed on 9 December 2025 at the head of a coalition with Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and Motorists for Themselves (AUTO). Legislative power belongs to a two-chamber Parliament: the 200-member Chamber of Deputies, which can make and break governments, and the 81-member Senate, which reviews laws and guards the constitution.
Karlovy Vary, October 1992: Writing a Constitution in Weeks
The Czech constitution was written against a deadline. Elections in June 1992 put Václav Klaus’s Civic Democratic Party in charge on the Czech side and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia on the Slovak side, and the federation was on its way out. Slovakia moved first: its constitution was enacted on 1 September 1992.
In August 1992 a government committee chaired by Klaus was given the job. The First Republic’s Constitutional Charter of 1920 left a deep mark on its work. The decisive drafting came between 19 and 24 October 1992 in Karlovy Vary.
The sharpest quarrel was over human rights. Klaus objected to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms, which Czechoslovakia had adopted in 1991, and in particular to its wording on the right to information, the right to organise in trade unions and the right to reward for work. The compromise, proposed by Miroslav Výborný, was the idea of a “constitutional order”: the Charter would not be written into the constitution’s text, but Article 3 would declare it part of the constitutional order. The Charter was re-enacted separately as Act No. 2/1993.
The government bill was read in the Czech National Council on 16 December 1992. Only one amendment from the floor survived, from deputy Pavel Hirš, restoring proportional representation for the lower house and a two-round system for the Senate. The chair, the playwright Milan Uhde, announced the result: 172 of the 198 deputies voting were in favour, 16 against and 10 abstained. Most of the preamble was written by Václav Havel, who would become the first president of the new state a few weeks later.
Articles 1 to 14 and the Eternity Clause
The opening chapter sets out what the rest of the document cannot undo. Article 1 defines the Czech Republic as a “sovereign, unitary and democratic” state governed by the rule of law. “Unitary” rules out a federation: there are no Bohemian or Moravian sub-states. Article 2 declares the people the source of all state power and allows a constitutional act to introduce referendums, a clause that went in at Havel’s insistence over the objections of the Civic Democrats.
Article 7, another Havel contribution, deals with the protection of nature, and Article 8 guarantees territorial self-government. Article 13 names Prague as the capital, and Article 14 lists the state symbols: the coat of arms, the national colours, the flag, the presidential flag, the state seal and the anthem.
The most important single provision is Article 9. It allows the constitution to be changed only by a constitutional act, which under Article 39 must pass with three-fifths of all 200 deputies (120 votes) and three-fifths of senators present. Article 9(2) then forbids any change to the “essential requirements of a democratic state governed by the rule of law”, an eternity clause comparable to the one in West Germany’s 1949 Basic Law. It is not decorative. In September 2009 the Constitutional Court used it to strike down a constitutional act that would have cut short a single parliamentary term to allow early elections, after independent deputy Miloš Melčák complained that his mandate was being shortened retroactively. The court ruled that this one-off, retroactive act violated the rule of law; the election was eventually held at the normal time, in May 2010.
Thun Palace and Wallenstein Palace: How Parliament Divides Power
Both chambers sit in Malá Strana, below Prague Castle. The Chamber of Deputies meets in the Thun Palace on Sněmovní Street, whose plenary hall was built in 1861 for the Bohemian Diet. Its 200 deputies serve four-year terms and are elected by open-list proportional representation in 14 constituencies matching the 13 regions plus Prague, with constituencies ranging from 8 to 26 seats.
The Senate occupies Wallenstein Palace, built between 1623 and 1630 for the Thirty Years’ War commander Albrecht von Wallenstein. Its 81 senators are each elected in a single-seat district by a two-round system for six-year terms, with a third of the seats renewed every two years; candidates must be at least 40 and need not belong to a party. Although created in 1992, the Senate was first elected only in 1996.
The two chambers are deliberately unequal. Only the Chamber of Deputies votes on the budget and on confidence in the government. If the Senate rejects or amends an ordinary bill, the Chamber can override it with an absolute majority of 101 deputies. The Senate cannot be overridden, however, on constitutional acts, electoral laws and certain international treaties, which is why it is often described as the constitution’s safety catch. It also confirms the president’s nominees to the Constitutional Court and can charge a president with high treason. The President of the Senate is the second-highest official in the state for ceremonial purposes.
Prague Castle and the Straka Academy: President and Cabinet
Chapter Three (Articles 54 to 80) divides the executive between the president, who works from Prague Castle, and the government, seated in the Straka Academy, a Neo-baroque building on the Vltava embankment completed in 1896. The framers intended a ceremonial presidency, but the authority of Havel, who served from 1993 to 2003, gave the office more weight than they planned.
The president appoints the prime minister and, on the prime minister’s proposal, the other ministers. Within 30 days the new government must win a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies. The president can return a bill to Parliament, a suspensory veto that 101 deputies can override, and cannot veto constitutional acts at all. Other powers include appointing judges and the Czech National Bank board and granting pardons. Several acts, among them amnesties and command of the armed forces, need the prime minister’s countersignature. A candidate must be at least 40, and no one may serve more than two consecutive five-year terms.
The prime minister leads the government and in practice holds most executive power. Proportional representation rarely produces single-party majorities. The present cabinet is the 17th since 1993; it was sworn in on 15 December 2025 and won its confidence vote in the Chamber on 15 January 2026 by 108 votes to 91.
Brno’s Three Top Courts
Chapter Four sets up the courts, and statute keeps the top tier away from Prague. The Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court all sit in Brno, the Moravian capital. The Constitutional Court occupies the former Moravian Diet building on Joštova Street. Its 15 judges are appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate for ten-year terms, and its rulings can be reversed only by amending the constitution.
The Constitutional Court is also the only venue for trying a president. On 4 March 2013 the Senate charged Václav Klaus with high treason over five alleged breaches of the constitution, the best known a New Year amnesty that released more than 6,000 prisoners and ended dozens of long-running corruption trials. His term ended days later, making the case largely symbolic.
Eight Amendments: Regions, the EU and the Direct Vote
By December 2022 the constitution had been amended eight times. One change created the regions: under Chapter Seven, and with the Law on Regions (Act No. 129/2000), the country has been divided since 1 January 2000 into 13 regions plus Prague, the capital, which counts as a region and a municipality at once. Each region elects its own assembly.
The so-called Euro-amendment, Act No. 395/2001, added Articles 10a and 10b, allowing powers to be transferred to an international organisation and requiring the government to keep Parliament informed on EU matters. A constitutional act was then passed for one referendum. On 13 and 14 June 2003, 77% of voters approved EU membership on a turnout of 55%, and the Czech Republic joined on 1 May 2004. As of 2026 that remains the only national referendum the country has held.
The biggest change to the balance of power came through a constitutional act passed by the Chamber in December 2011 and the Senate in February 2012 and in force from 1 October 2012, which replaced election of the president by a joint session of Parliament with a direct two-round popular vote. The first direct election, in January 2013, was won by Miloš Zeman with 54.8% in the runoff against Karel Schwarzenberg.
From the 2021 Electoral Ruling to the 2025 Babiš Coalition
Ordinary law, not the constitution, sets most election rules, but changing them needs both chambers to agree. That protection was tested in 2021. Senators from the Mayors and Independents, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09 challenged the lower-house system, and on 3 February 2021 the Constitutional Court ruled that the D’Hondt method and the steep thresholds for alliances favoured large parties. Parliament rewrote the law months before the October 2021 election, setting the thresholds of 5%, 8% and 11% shown above.
The Chamber can also vote to dissolve itself. It took that route in August 2013 after Petr Nečas’s government fell over a corruption scandal and Jiří Rusnok’s caretaker cabinet lost a confidence vote.
The party system itself has changed. From 1993 to 2013 the Civic Democrats and the Social Democrats dominated; Babiš’s ANO has won the most seats at every lower-house election since 2017. In 2021 neither the Social Democrats nor the Communists cleared 5%, and more than a million votes, about a fifth of those cast, went to parties that won no seats. In the election of 3 and 4 October 2025, ANO again came first and Babiš formed his coalition with SPD and AUTO. Petr Pavel, a retired general and former chair of the NATO Military Committee, had beaten Babiš in the 2023 presidential runoff with 58.33% of the vote, so the president and prime minister now come from opposing camps.
The 1992 framework remains largely intact, which helps explain why the 1993 split went so smoothly; our guide to the Velvet Divorce of Czechoslovakia covers how the two states separated. For a neighbouring model with a powerful president and a very different upper house, compare the government of Poland, while the city that houses nearly all of these institutions is profiled in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.