Prague 5. Mayoress Zajíčková leaves the wall. The opposition has a majority by one vote
photo: Jakub Mračno, PrahaIN.cz/Monika Shaw Salajová will try to win the post of mayor of Prague 5 in the autumn municipal elections.
The previous opposition in Prague 5 is celebrating a great victory, where thanks to the great result of Prague 5 and the surprise in the form of the success of the SEN 21 candidate, they will manage to get an over-half majority in the council with the help of the Pirates. And this despite the expected success of Mayor Zajíčková’s dual coalition and the decent result of the STAN and ANO movements.
After four years, Prague 5 is changing its political representation. Despite the self-confident pre-election statements of the mayor Renáta Zajíčková (ODS), who led to the election candidate SPOLEČNÁ for Praha 5, the dual coalition of the ODS and TOP 09, it seems that the previous opposition will have the upper hand.
The strengths of the two strongest camps, i.e. Prague 5 itself and TOGETHER, are determined, both entities have ten mandates each.
Then it’s down to relatively simple electoral math. “We will negotiate with all democratic entities, as we already declared before the elections, but basically the most likely composition is the formation of a coalition with the candidates of Prague 5 and SEN 21, where the projection of the programs is the largest,” said PrahaIN.cz the former chairman of the control committee and opposition representative for Pirates Štěpán Rattay.
According to his own words, the six mandates that the pirate party won in Prague 5 correspond to his pre-election estimates, but the Pirates correspond to one party of a possible coalition that has experience in the executive branch, which he would like to take into account during negotiations.
“It was dramatic, we watched the development tensely until the last moment, then we already held preliminary negotiations on a possible coalition,” he said of the election weekend. The negotiations should continue on Sunday, which was confirmed to the editors by Monika Shaw Salajová, who led the SEN 21 candidate to the elections together with Senator Václav Láska.
“I’m excited, it’s good that the voters chose a change,” she commented on the results of the elections in Prague 5 already on Sunday morning.
With five seats up for grabs in the council, it is a big surprise in this year’s elections, where the party ran for the first time. “We are not completely unknown thanks to the office of Senator Václav Láska, where we have already worked for people from Prague 5 in the past, yet our result exceeded expectations,” Salajová responded to PrahaIN.cz’s question.
However, the opposition’s victory is very narrow, literally by one vote.
“It is a great success for us, but the majority is close, so it will require that we always prepare well and be disciplined for the key body of negotiations, where it is possible to count on the support of the opposition, which we as Prague 5 can guarantee ourselves,” PrahaIN. cz and Pavel Světlík, the top three candidates for Prague 5 and the current representative of the capital.
“The Prague results are a big disappointment for us, I’m sorry mainly because of the people who have done a really perfect job in the municipal coalition so far,” he admitted when asked by the editors. He himself did not defend his position as a representative of the capital city, so according to his own words, I will devote myself to work in Prague 5.
“All is not lost yet, the negotiations will be interesting and there are many variants in play. In addition, we have Jan Čižínský, who is undoubtedly the best political strategist,” commented Světlík about the possible development of koalas at the level of the capital city.
It is quite possible that he also employs the current coalition in Prague 5, i.e. ODS, TOP 09, STAN and the ANO movement. Their representatives have one vote less than the coalition outlined above, i.e. exactly twenty. This is provided that they form a coalition TOGETHER with ten, YES with seven and STAN with three mandates. “For now, it’s just the way it is,” responded the former deputy mayor Tomáš Homola to a question from PrahaIN.cz in the STAN election staff around ten in the evening. Even though the results were in at that moment, he was visibly nervous. Mayor Zajíčková commented on the result as balanced.
“It ended in a de facto draw at five. In the end, Prague won by some thirteen votes. However, she won and I congratulate her on her success,” she commented on the election result for PrahaIN.cz with a traditional thank you to the voters.
“Thank you to everyone who voted TOGETHER and we really appreciate their votes. It is a commitment for us for the following difficult period. I think it is necessary to discard prejudices and look for a stable solution for the next four years,” she answered diplomatically to the editor’s question about the possible post-election distribution of forces.
The editors also contacted ANO leader Petar Lachnit, but he did not respond to PrahaIN.cz’s questions before publication.