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Summary for: Women lose ground in Czech Senate as just one new candidate wins a seatWomen’s representation in the Czech Senate will fall following this year’s elections, with departures and electoral defeats reducing their numbers from a record 17 to 14.
Only one newly elected woman will enter the upper chamber: Zuzana Ceralová Petrofová, who won the Hradec Králové district for ODS. Two incumbent women lost their runoff contests, while another two chose not to seek reelection.
The changes will leave women holding approximately 17 percent of the Senate’s 81 seats, down from 21 percent after the previous elections. By comparison, women account for roughly one-third of members of the Chamber of Deputies, according to the Czech News Agency.
Four departures outweigh one new arrival
Two sitting senators lost their seats in Saturday’s runoff.
In Frýdek-Místek, Helena Pešatová, elected for STAN, was defeated by Petr Korč of the local movement Naše město Frýdek-Místek.
In Kladno, Pirate senator Adéla Sucharda Šípová also failed to secure another term. Her candidacy had support from STAN, TOP 09, the Greens and SEN 21, but that backing was insufficient to retain the seat.
Two other prominent senators did not stand again. Jitka Seitlová, a Christian Democrat and former Senate vice president, stepped down from the contest in Přerov. ODS senator Miroslava Němcová likewise chose not to defend her Prague 1 seat.
Their departures were only partly offset by Ceralová Petrofová’s victory in Hradec Králové, where she defeated former European Affairs Minister Martin Dvořák.
The result reverses the Senate’s previous high for women’s representation. Even at that record level, however, women occupied only about one in five seats.
Party victories did not bring more women into the chamber
Several other women reached the runoff but were defeated in direct contests with male opponents.
In Cheb, ANO nominee Sandra Tsoukernik lost to STAN incumbent Miroslav Plevný. In Plzeň-město, ANO’s Lucie Kantorová was defeated by Karel Řehka, nominated by STAN.
Opera singer Dagmar Pecková, running for ODS in Prague 9, was unable to unseat STAN senator David Smoljak.
The overall decline cuts across the broader story of an election dominated by opposition parties. STAN and its Liberec regional allies won 10 seats, while ODS secured seven, but those successes did not produce an increase in women’s representation.
ANO, meanwhile, failed to win any seat despite advancing 13 candidates to the runoff, including several women.
The figures describe the outcome rather than explain its causes. The individual defeats alone do not establish whether candidates’ gender influenced voters’ decisions.
They nevertheless leave a clear difference between Parliament’s two chambers: women will hold about one in six Senate seats, compared with approximately one in three in the Chamber of Deputies. With only one-third of Senate seats contested every two years, the next regular opportunity to change that balance will come in 2028.
