Prague again postpones the election of the leadership. The stalemate can last as long as four years, the political scientist explains
The Prague council postpones the election of the mayor and councilors again. The parties still did not come to an agreement, which is why politicians included an item on Thursday’s meeting to postpone the elections to the next meeting on December 15. Together they are trying to form a coalition with STAN and also the Pirates. They want to take Prague for themselves, but Spulo refuses. “It’s a stalemate that can theoretically last four years,” says political scientist Michal Pink.
Prague is waiting for a new mayor for a record long time. In early November, at the constituent assembly, its members postponed the leadership election to this Thursday. They believed that they would come to an agreement during that time. They will now vote to postpone the election for another three weeks.
In theory, this can continue in the next election. The law does not set any time limit for representatives by which they should elect a new leadership. “It depends on how the council will function, because it is the most powerful body. The moment they approve the budget, which will be presented to the current council, it can continue to function like this,” explained Michal Pink, a political scientist from Masaryk University.
The capital’s representatives were to decide on the budget on December 15. “We agreed that this is a crucial date for all of us in terms of approving the budget and we will do everything to ensure that it is approved and that there is no threat of a provisional budget,” said the chairman of Spolu representatives Zdeněk Zajíček (ODS) earlier.
The provisional budget means that the city would manage the same amount of money as in the previous year, but would not be allowed to spend more than one twelfth of the total amount each month. “When you need to pay more one month, you can’t. Investment actions and plans cannot be approved provisionally,” said political scientist Pink.
Therefore, the Prague representatives at least approved an information document on the budget on Thursday. According to him, in 2023, the capital should manage revenues of 99.65 billion crowns and spend 104.88 billion. It allocated 20 billion for the investment. What the investments should be is up to the new council to decide. The municipal budget department is currently working on the document.
Fiala: He is not considering any option other than the government one
Negotiations for a new coalition got stuck on the participation of Prague itself. The party has formed an alliance with the Pirates and they only want to go to the capital council together. However, Spolu representatives refuse to cooperate with Prague and repeat that they believe in forming a coalition of government parties. That is, only with Mayors and Pirates. “We will continue to convince and explain to the Pirates,” stated Spolu’s candidate for mayor, Bohuslav Svoboda from the ODS, at Thursday’s council meeting.
First deputy mayor Petr Hlaváček from STAN is optimistic. “We called for negotiations to be held in a three-party format, colleagues agreed,” he said, adding that representatives of the three governing parties would meet on Friday.
In addition, ODS members describe that the edges are being roughed up during the latest negotiations with the Pirates and they hope that when they are offered powerhouses in the council, they will abandon the alliance with Prague. However, the head of the Prague Pirates, Zdeněk Hřib, said in an interview with Aktuálně.cz this week that he insists on an alliance with Jan Čižínský’s party.
Both the Pirates and Prague are saying that the Together coalition can deliberately block the agreement with Prague because it is waiting for the presidential elections. ANO chairman Andrej Babiš is running in them. Prague’s ANO offers itself as another possible coalition partner for Spolu, and according to the Pirates and Prague, their alliance would be better explained to the voters after the elections.
But representatives of the Spolu coalition, in addition to Svoboda, for example ODS representative Alexandra Udženija, call this nonsense. “That we would wait until February? Are you kidding me?” used Svoboda. In addition, the Prime Minister and head of the ODS, Petr Fiala, confirmed on Thursday morning that Prague’s Spolu is not considering any other coalition option than the one with the government parties.
According to political scientist Pink, this is the first time that a new government has been waiting so long in a large city in the Czech Republic. But in villages and small towns it is nothing special. There, the situation is also resolved by early elections. For them, it is necessary that all representatives and their substitutes submit their mandate. In Prague, which has 65 representatives and 22 parties ran for the elections, this would mean that roughly a thousand people would have to give up their posts. Therefore, early elections are not a realistic solution in Prague.
Video: In principle, I will agree with anyone, but I cannot deny myself, Hřib says about negotiations in Prague (October 4, 2022)
The idea that you won’t do this job for eight hours a day, as Bohuslav Svoboda looks like, is comical, says the outgoing mayor of Prague. | Video: Martin Veselovsky