Czech news in brief for August 20: Thursday's top afternoon headlines

Good afternoon, back from holidays for barely a week, Czech ministers and politicians are already facing a busy agenda, with a divisive housing act stirring up tensions in the halls of Parliament and budget talks at the top of the agenda. In other news, rain, thunder and hail - as well as wind turbines - are now falling from the sky. Here are this afternoon's top headlines.

The opposition-controlled Senate - the upper house of Parliament - today rejected a divisive government-backed amendment to the Building Act by 55 votes out of 66 senators present. The bill now returns to the Chamber of Deputies, where the government holds a comfortable majority and can easily overturn the Senate's veto. The law will also have to be signed by President Petr Pavel to come into effect.

Heated debates. The vote took place after more than five hours of heated arguments, with opposition politicians criticizing a proposal which, according to them, is simply a godsend to increase developers' profits under the guise of cutting red tape and accelerating the whole permitting process.

The Czech agriculture sector will lose about CZK 20 billion in sales this year as a result of the drought and low harvests, said Jan Doležal, president of the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic. With vegetable production expected to drop by 30 percent and the overall agricultural harvest plummeting to its lowest level in 15 years, Czech farmers are facing one of their most difficult season in years, and consumers may also be facing higher prices in supermarkets as domestic production dips.

Government promises support. "This year is exceptionally challenging for many farmers. But they are not alone, the state is ready to help them," vowed Agriculture Minister Martin Šebestyán, promising to use EU money to support them and increase state investments in water management.

The state budget deficit will increase in 2027 from this year's CZK 310 billion gap, Finance Minister Alena Schillerová told journalists today, although she vowed to keep it under CZK 400 billion. Since coming back on Monday from the summer recess, Czech cabinet members have been meeting one-on-one with Schillerová to negotiate for next year's budget, which should be finalized before the end of September.

Skyrocketing debt. The planned public deficit for 2026 is already the fourth highest in the history of the Czech Republic, still some ways behind the record CZK 420 billion deficit of 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic. State debt reached more than CZK 3.6 trillion at the end of last year, or about 43 percent of Czech GDP.

The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (ČHMÚ) warned that strong storms are expected on Friday afternoon and throughout the night, mostly affecting eastern and south-eastern parts of Bohemia and western Moravia. Wind gusts of up to 90 kilometers per hour, along with thunderstorms, torrential rain and hail could fall in parts of the country. A supercell - a rarer and more dangerous type of thunderstorm - already started raging in the Vysočina region this afternoon.

Clear skies ahead. Skies should quickly clear after the deluge, however, with a warmer and sunnier weekend forecast for most of Saturday and Sunday.

A wind turbine fell off today from a height of about 30 meters, plummeting onto a field near Potštát, east of Olomouc, in what has been described as the first such incident ever to happen in Czechia. Thankfully no one was injured, and police are now investigating the cause of the free-fall of one of the country's oldest wind turbines.

Forced retirement. It had been active in the Czech Republic for more than 20 years, but its actual age could be higher as it might have been used abroad before being installed here, according to the Czech News Agency.