Prague in limbo. Municipal districts, institutions and projects are waiting for a coalition
“We are certainly not paralyzed, but some decisions await a new council. If the governmentlessness carried over into the new year, there could be problems in some areas,” says Ondřej Boháč, director of the Institute of Planning and Development. “This applies to territorial studies and changes to the territorial plan and the Metropolitan Plan. For some things, we are waiting for a political assignment, which we cannot do and according to which the work will eventually have to be rearranged,” said Boháč. However, according to him, city companies and institutions generally expect that work in the city will stop for a while after the elections.
However, the coalition has not been formed for such a long time in the history of Prague. The situation has been the same for several weeks. The Spolu coalition led by Bohuslav Svoboda, which won the elections, wants to form a coalition on the government’s plan, i.e. with Pirates and Mayors. The pirates still want to add their current partner Praha to the party, which Spulu refuses.
According to Hřiba, the basic problem is the fact that Spolu wants the position of mayor, if only in eleven-member councils, which, according to him, does not correspond to the election results. According to Svoboda, the Pirates have exaggerated conditions and a broad coalition with Prague does not make sense.
It is therefore possible that on December 15, when the council could finally elect the council, a minority government Together will be formed with the tacit support of the opposition movement ANO. And according to Svoboda, it will be the Pirates’ fault. “If we are forced to go into a minority government, that is not our decision. It is the decision of those who prevented the formation of the coalition,” claimed Svoboda on Czech television.
The Prague council must now urgently approve the city budget of one hundred billion for next year. If it didn’t do it, not only the capital would end up in the budget provisional, but all its districts would also get into trouble. City firms are also waiting for the budget, and they need to know what possible policy cuts they will make in an effort to find money for higher energy payments.
According to councilor for property Jan Chabra (TOP 09), who is not only part of the ending Hřib coalition, but also a member of the winning Spolu coalition, the situation was facilitated by the establishment of municipal committees last week. “This will make it much easier to discuss the regular agenda at the city level,” he said. “Regarding matters that require a strong political consensus, it is not only a matter of further progress in the case of the Žižkov freight station, but also of a decision on which path to take next in the case of the plan to build an energy center,” Chabr described.
Price increases in the Czech Republic – Development of basic food prices from 2015 to mid-2022
“In transport, we have projects prepared and launched by the end of the year. The steps that have to be approved by the council usually manage to be discussed, but it is much more lengthy and the process is more demanding considering the need to discuss all the prints in the transport committee,” described the name for transport Adam Scheinherr (Prague Self), according to which there is also uncertainty regarding with transport funding next year.
Councilor for social policy and healthcare Milena Johnová (Praha seba) is a little more critical. “In the field of social policy, key processes for the modernization of the network of social services are blocked, because the result of the efforts of the ODS to cancel the validity of important resolutions is awaited,” the councilor said.
According to her, non-profit organizations, social service providers and municipal districts wait and do not prepare applications for subsidies for the development of social infrastructure, which are distributed as part of the National Recovery Plan. “Potentially, Prague loses hundreds of millions of crowns. There is a danger that instead of subsidizing requests, funds will be allocated to a more progressive region that has been exhausting for a long time,” said Johnová.