Election 2022 | The idiosyncratic mayor Novotný successfully defended his primacy in Prague’s Řepory
“The deputy mayor and I probably made a constitutional majority in Řeporyje. I called my mom and told her that I would be humble and not retaliate. They don’t believe me,” Novotný commented with a smile on Twitter about the election results shortly before Saturday midnight.
“The return to the tabloids has been postponed for four years…,” added the former tabloid journalist, who made the ruling party aware of his novel methods. Novotný is known, among other things, for his peculiar communication on social networks, which has its detractors.
However, the majority are those who liked Novotný. The ODS can boast of a better result in Řeporyje than four years ago, when it received only less than 30 percent of the votes in the Prague district with approximately 3,700 inhabitants.
“I will try to turn the power entrusted to me primarily into unification, reconciliation and, above all, into seeking humility and looking forward, backward,” he said on Facebook. At the same time, he promised to be the mayor of all.
“Even those who didn’t vote for me, and they are also the only ones I appreciate telling me how they decided. Those who pat me on the back and say ‘I voted for you’ should know that I despise them. Not because they (probably) voted for me. But for the need to tell me,” declared Novotný.
During his mayorship, Novotný in Řeporyje, for example, canceled the planned waste sorting plant, removed dozens of car wrecks from the streets, built three playgrounds or renovated the old station building for the needs of Ukrainian refugees. He calls himself a child as “naughty ODS” and uses the slogan “Dycky Řeporyje!”.
In the past, he also attracted attention when he announced his intention to build a monument to the Russian Liberation Army, i.e. the so-called Vlasovians. At the time, the Russian embassy and Russia itself objected. He also appeared on Russian state television Rossiya to explain the plan to build a monument to the Vlasovs.
Both Čižinský and Vodrážka scored
Mayor of Prague 7 Jan Čižinský can also claim victory outright. “It turned out well, we have eighteen representatives out of twenty-nine and we can continue to make our district a pleasant place to live,” commented Čižinský on the election results. Prague won 53 percent of all votes here.
The group’s history began to be written in 2014, when Jan Čižinský, who worked as a teacher, decided to build an overpriced town hall in Prague 7. The Prague 7 Initiative won the municipal elections overwhelmingly in the same year. She repeated her success in 2018, when she won a majority of all voters with a result of 55.48%.
Prague 13 has long been a stronghold of the ODS. David Vodrážka, the former first vice-chairman of the ODS, won the elections here again this year, as he did in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018. He has been leading Prague 13 for 20 years and will continue to do so.
“I think that during that time I know Prague 13 and its problems really thoroughly. Many were successfully solved, some new ones appeared. I still have the desire, energy and, above all, the strength to continue working,” he said on Facebook a few days before the elections.
“You know me. I’m not an activist. I don’t want to experiment with the entrusted authority. I don’t want to interfere in people’s lives. I offer what you already know about me. It is my duty to take care of Prague 13. I want to take care of her and develop her in such a way that life here is high-quality, safe and satisfying,” wrote Vodrážka.
According to the final results, his years of work paid off again, the ODS won 27.73% in this district, i.e. more than 10 percentage points more than the second ANO.
However, the longest-serving mayor of Prague, Pavel Žďárský, won the highest percentage gain, whose SNK Kbely náš domov in Prague 19 won 63.09 percent of the vote, which means a mandate of ten in the 15-member council. Žďárský became mayor already in 1997 and said that he would apply for the post again. The mayor of Prague 16, Karel Hanzlík (ODS), also won ten of the 15 mandates with his party, winning 61.6 percent of the vote. Hanzlík has been mayor since 2006 and wants to continue in office.
There is a difference of 50 years between the representatives
In the early hours of Sunday, it was also clear who would sit in the Prague council. As in the past four years, the oldest representative is SPOLU leader, MP and former mayor Bohuslav Svoboda, who is 78 years old.
The youngest are the serving city councilor Adam Zábranský (Pirates) and newly elected representative David Procházka (STAN), who are 28 years old. Svoboda and Zábranský, with an age difference of about 50 years, hold the position of the oldest and youngest representative for the third term.
The Pirates have the lowest average age of the political parties, i.e. 42.78 years, closely followed by Praha Sobě with 42.91 years. On the other hand, the SPD, Trikolora, PES and independent associations have the oldest representatives, the three representatives have an average age of 56.67 years. The winner of the election, the Spolu coalition (ODS, TOP 09 and KDU-ČSL) achieved 50.16 years.