Josef Kalbáč

Josef Kalbáč was born on 17 February 1940 in Třebohostice near Strakonice, in what was then the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. He grew up on a farm in a Catholic family. Under the communist regime, as the son of a farmer from a religious household, he was denied the forestry schooling he first sought and instead began work in an agricultural cooperative. He later completed his education by distance study, graduating in 1972 from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (then the agricultural college). From 1976 to 1990 he worked as an agronomist at the cooperative farm in Radomyšl.

Kalbáč joined the Czechoslovak People's Party (later KDU-ČSL) in 1968 and remained a Christian Democrat through the post-1989 transition. After the Velvet Revolution he entered regional administration in Strakonice, serving as head of the district office from 1997 to 2002. He then briefly directed the local branch of the Office for Government Representation in Property Affairs. In a 2003 Senate by-election he won the Strakonice seat (district 12), succeeding Pavel Rychetský, and sat until 2 November 2008. In the Senate he served on committees dealing with regional development, public administration and the environment, and he was a prominent critic of the Lisbon Treaty. In the 2008 presidential election he supported Václav Klaus against Jan Švejnar, citing among other reasons pressure for a public ballot. He advanced to a runoff for re-election in 2008 but lost narrowly to the ČSSD candidate Miroslav Krejča. From March 2009 he worked as an external adviser to President Klaus. In October 2019 President Miloš Zeman awarded him the Medal of Merit, First Class.

Kalbáč lived for most of his life in Třebohostice and treated Radomyšl as a second home. He collected folk songs of south-west Bohemia and published them in songbooks so that older melodies and texts would not be lost. He was known locally for his love of brass-band music and for attending village clubs, volunteer firefighters' events and regional gatherings. His life story was recorded for the Memory of Nation project. Public tributes after his death did not dwell on private family details beyond the communities that knew him.

Josef Kalbáč died on 21 September 2026 at the age of 86. The town of Strakonice announced his death on social media. Czech news outlets including iDNES.cz, Seznam Zprávy, Novinky.cz and Strakonický deník reported the news the following day. A specific cause of death was not published in those accounts. Senator Tomáš Fiala, mayors in the district and municipal statements offered condolences to his family and friends.

Kalbáč is remembered in South Bohemia as a senator and district administrator who kept close to rural communities, and nationally as a Christian Democrat who backed Václav Klaus in 2008 and later advised him at Prague Castle. The Medal of Merit recognised a long public career. His songbooks and concerts left a local cultural mark beside his political record. Strakonice's tribute said that through every office he held he remained tied to his home district, to farming and to village life.