They won together in Prague, but not much. The negotiations with the Pirates will be explosive, says the political scientist
“Even if it goes against the right, it is certainly a failure for the coalition. Prague is historically a stronghold. If we compare it with the results we saw here eight or twelve years ago, this year’s is very bad,” said political scientist Jakub Charvát from Jan University Evangelist Purkyně. For example, in the 2010 elections, the parties of the current coalition together won more than half of all votes.
This year they will not reach such a comfortable majority. Already on Sunday, representatives of the ODS, TOP 09 and People’s Party will start discussing with whom they will form a new municipal coalition. First of all, they would like to invite the parties with whom they also sit in the current government to cooperate – i.e. Pirates with Mayors and independents.
“We are convinced that this is the only possible solution for Prague,” said Spolu leader and candidate for mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS). He explained this in particular by the fact that a number of large-scale projects, such as the construction of the City Ring Road, will require close cooperation between the city management and the government.
The current mayor and leader of the Pirates, Zdeňko Hřib, also admits to the negotiations. “We will definitely get to negotiations with Spolu in the coming days. I have no doubt about that,” he said.
The words have faded away, we have work ahead of us, said Svoboda
The negotiations between the coalition Together and the Pirates will, of course, be “crazy”, according to Charvát. The representatives of the Pirates and the civil democrats strongly distinguished themselves from each other before the elections.
And it wasn’t just that Spolu, in contrast to the liberal Pirates, mostly represent more conservative voters. For the Pirates, for example, the criminal prosecution of some politicians in the leading positions of the Spolu candidate, the connection of Jiří Pospíšil (TOP 09) with the Dozimeter case, or the alleged contacts of Zdeňko Zajíček from the ODS with godfathers are obstacles.
Current mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates). | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
The main candidate for mayor Svoboda is also a problem for them. For example, it bothers the pirates that, as mayor, he would not give up his parliamentary mandate or his job as a doctor. Some critics also mention his age, Svobod is 78 years old, or his earlier work at the head of the city. He already led Prague between 2010 and 2013. He first governed with the ČSSD, later with TOP 09. The representatives eventually dismissed him and the ODS went into opposition after 22 years of continuous government in Prague.
You can’t expect sympathy from the other side either. In an interview for Aktuálně.cz, Svoboda said that he could not even imagine other pirates in cooperation with Hřib. “They would have to change or change 100 percent. Otherwise there is no common bond,” he said.
Even in pre-election debates, Hřib and Svoboda were the pair of leaders who most often come into conflict. “There was a lot of ping pong between the Pirates and the ODS in the final period of the campaign. They will bear it, but they will have to overcome it,” says Charvát.
He also called on Svoboda to postpone previous disputes. “The words have died down and we have work ahead of us. It is something completely different from the words we throw in each other’s faces,” he said to the Pirates after the election.
ANO continued to gather left-wing voters
According to his words, Patrik Nacher of the second ANO movement will also be waiting for an invitation to the negotiations. “We will see if the likely winner of the Spolu election will deal with partners who moralize their own candidate in this somewhat humiliating position,” he said. Before the elections, Svoboda described Nacher as a very capable person, but called possible cooperation with the opposition movement ANO “almost improbable”.
Compared to the elections four years ago, the ANO movement in the capital improved by four percentage points. “ANO continued to gather left-wing voters. The Social Democrats and Communists weakened again compared to the previous elections, and it seems to me that this could be exactly the percentage points that ANO has extra,” Charvát calculates.
Hřib would like to reach out to the current municipal coalition for cooperation – the Praha Self Movement finished fourth with 14.8 percent and Starostové and independents fifth with 7.7 percent. Representatives of TOP 09, who were also in the leadership until now, but this year ran for Spolu, and Jiří Pospíšil called them a “firm part of the coalition” after the elections. Therefore, Hřib probably won’t be able to win the majority.
Jan Čižinský (left) in the Prague election staff. | Photo: Radek Vebr / HN
The coalition of the SPD, the Tricolor, the PES movement and independents also got into the Prague council with a gain of 5.2 percent. However, cooperation with these parties was excluded by most other parties due to their extremist positions.
The strongest party that did not make it to the council was the Motorists themselves with a gain of 2.3 percent of the vote. This was followed by the Solidarity coalition consisting of the ČSSD, the Greens, the Idealists and the Future with two percent. The Communists reached 1.5 percent.