Prague: Government coalition Spolu and Pirates+STAN? Another round of negotiations
“We agreed on the fact that we have created three groups, which in the coming days will work very hard both on program issues, on the one hand on the principles of coalition cooperation and also on the division of tasks that could be held by individual representatives of our parties in a possible new series,” said Zajíček.
According to Zajíček, the teams will represent three political clubs, i.e Together, Pirates and STAN i.e. without Prague, which the Pirates are asking for in the coalition. “So I think we have an agreement and we are ready to work,” he said. Each team will have a leader who will call the meetings. In the coming days, the teams are expected to come up with proposals to present to the negotiating teams. The next meeting is scheduled for December 5.
Program, management and communication
Party representatives discussed not only the program, but also the coalition arrangement. “We talked about specific things. There are three areas, the program, management division in the council and, as a third matter, cooperation mechanisms in the coalitionKomrsková said. However, the parties do not have a coalition agreement in advance. Zaječek said that for this to be the case, the teams must meet and prepare definitive proposals, which are discussed by the bodies of the parties. “Only then will we be able to say whether the coalition could or could not be formed,” Zajíček said.
They did not talk about the events at the chaotic meeting of the interrupted constitutive meeting of party representatives. “We didn’t deal with it, we looked ahead, not back,” said Arnot. At the meeting, the representatives of the parties argued for long hours and criticized each other over a wide range of issues. The Pirates and Praha Sobě interrupted the many-hour negotiations on the establishment of representative committees for eight hours. A number of representatives described it as obstruction. The meeting eventually resumed and ended at 04:00 today.
Without Prague to yourself?
In recent weeks, the Pirates concluded a Stability Alliance with Prague Sobě, they want to proceed together in the negotiations. Spolu rejects the presence of Prague Sobě in the coalition. “The alliance continues for now. My colleague and I haven’t seen each other since this morning, when the 18-hour council meeting ended. I have no mandate to talk about it (the future of the alliance). Praha Soba was not discussed at today’s meetingKomrsková said.
Record
This year’s wait for the Prague mayor is the longest in the history of the independent Czech Republic. More than two months have passed since the September elections. At the same time, since the elections in autumn 1994, the longest wait for the election of a new city manager was a month and a half. In 2010, the council and mayor were elected 45 days after the election, four years later it took just one day longer. In 1994 and 1998, the mayors were elected less than two weeks after the elections.
The Spolu coalition won the municipal elections in Prague this year, winning 19 mandates in the 65-member council. ANO finished second with 14 and Pirates third with 13 representatives. Čtvrtá Praha Sobě has 11 mandates, five representatives have STAN in fifth place. Sixth is the SPD with three mandates.
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Post-election coalition negotiations at the Prague municipality of the winning coalition Spolu (ODS, TOP 09 and KDU-ČSL) with the STAN movement, September 29, 2022, Prague.
Author: ČTK / Řihová Michaela