How the future labor minister changed his mind on unemployment benefits — twice

Radek Jůhelka (ANO), the Czech Republic's incoming minister of labour and social affairs, has dramatically reversed his position on unemployment benefits three times over the past year — first voting to increase them, then publicly defending the move, and now preparing to scrap it altogether. This is borne out by the politician's own public statements and parliamentary voting records.

How the benefit was raised

The story began in March 2025, when the Chamber of Deputies passed a so-called flexible amendment to the labour code, drafted by then-labour minister Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL). The law took effect in June of last year. Among other things, it raised unemployment benefits for the first months of joblessness — from 65 to 80 percent of a person's previous net salary.

Although Jůhelka now claims the benefit increase was the achievement of the previous government of Petr Fiala, opposition ANO deputies voted for the amendment in full back then too — including Jůhelka himself and ANO leader Andrej Babiš, now the country's prime minister.

What's more, as recently as this past February, Jůhelka was publicly defending the higher benefit. He argued that it gave people enough time to find a job matching their qualifications. He also noted that stronger support in the first months allowed people to retrain and boost their value on the labour market — a benefit, he said, not just for them but for the state and the economy as a whole.

A complete about-face

A few months later, his rhetoric changed entirely. The current government now plans to cut unemployment benefits starting next January: from the current 80 percent down to 65 percent of a person's previous salary for the first two months, and to 60 percent for subsequent months.

According to government calculations, the measure is expected to save up to 5 billion crowns. Jůhelka now justifies the decision as a way to encourage people to return to work faster, insisting that the goal is not to keep people on benefits longer than necessary.

Yet the claim that the labour market has dramatically improved does not hold up under scrutiny. Between February — when Jůhelka was still defending the higher benefit — and July, the unemployment rate fell only marginally, from 5.13 percent to exactly 5 percent, a difference of just 0.13 percentage points that hardly points to any fundamental shift in the labour market.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz