Prague expressor Tomáš Hudeček wants to become a senator
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He became the first post-revolutionary politician to break the ODS’s rule over the Prague City Hall. Tomáš Hudeček from TOP 09 was the mayor of the capital from 2013 to 2014, but later withdrew from public life.
But as the News List has now found out, Hudeček is preparing to return to high politics. He started collecting signatures for the candidacy for the Senate, he could apply for voter support in the district of Prague 11.
“As an independent candidate, I have to collect more than a thousand signatures to support my candidacy, I move in Prague 11 and 15 (this is one constituency of Prague 11, editor’s note)“Said the News List Expressor.
He has not launched the election campaign yet, he is just waiting to see if there are enough signatures. Hudeček does not rule out that he would subsequently apply for the support of some of the political parties. “It is a possible background and it has not been decided yet,” added the former head of Prague City Hall.
The current senator for Prague 11 is the vice-chairman of the Senator 21 club and Pirates Ladislav Kos. Hana Kordová Marvanová, a Prague councilor for STAN, for example, wanted to run here. In the meantime, however, it has broken up with the STAN movement and intends to run for the Together coalition, a change of constituency is not so out of the question.
The road behind the chain
Tomáš Hudeček got into Prague politics after the elections in 2010 in the TOP 09 jersey. That election to the capital council won, but ended up in opposition.
Bohuslav Svoboda from the ODS, who is the leader of the Spolu coalition in this year’s elections, hung the mayoral chain around his neck. They formed a coalition with the CSSD, which was perceived by many voters as a victim of the election winner.
Hudeček was active in the opposition, he also mastered maneuvering in the corridors. And in the fall of 2011, he was one of the main proponents of the fall of the Civic and Social Democrats. The CSSD, alongside the ODS in the leadership of the town hall, replaced TOP 09, thus creating the second Svoboda coalition. Hudeček became the first deputy mayor.
However, it creaked between Hudeček and Svoboda, disputes in the city’s own transport company also poured stones into the gears. Hudeček eventually agreed with the CSSD to support his one-color council, thus ousting the Civic Democrats. In the summer of 2013, he became mayor.
However, as mayor he was weakened by disputes with the then deputy and party colleague Jiří Vávra, which resulted in a sharpened clash and shortly after the 2014 elections, both men left the party.
In adversity of Kalousek
It was a surprise at the time, because Hudeček was one of the most visible politicians in TOP 09. However, he did not have the support of the then vice-chairman and de facto party leader Miroslav Kalousek.
“I have long pointed out that the leadership of the Prague organization is connected to the old godfather structures as well as the current YES movement elected in the Prague elections. I called on the party leadership to address this immediately. In the evening, I met with the party chairman, who asked me if I would find my resignation at the presidency the next day. I am convinced that Miroslav Kalousek gave Karel Schwarzenberg a choice at night: either you force Hudeček to resign or I am finished. But TOP 09 obviously does not intend to change the direction that moves it away from the original goal, ” described then Hudeček conditions in the TOP 09.
In the period from 2014 to 2018, Hudeček remained a non-partisan opposition representative. He withdrew from high politics, and the prosecution in the Opencard case prevented him from flying, but in which he was acquitted and the state apologized to him. Hudeček, meanwhile, devoted himself to university pedagogical practice and cooperated with the Institute of Planning and Development of the Capital City of Prague. m Prague (IPR).