Prague does not have a new management even after 73 days, Spolu will no longer negotiate with the Pirates News
The Spolu coalition (ODS, TOP 09, KDU-ČSL) did not reach an agreement with the Pirates on a coalition in Prague and will not continue negotiations. Instead, he will start negotiations on the support of minority councils, he will address all parties in the council with the excuse of the SPD. Members of the Spolu negotiation team told journalists after today’s meeting with representatives of the Pirates and STAN.
According to the outgoing mayor Zdenek Hřiba (Pirates), Spolu still insists that he will hold the position of mayor even in the majority of the eleven-member city councils, which is unacceptable for the Pirates. The chairman of the representative club of the ANO movement, Patrik Nacher, told ČTK that the movement is willing to support the minority council Together, but only until the end of February.
The exact form of the minority council is not yet clear, according to the members of the Together, everything will be determined by other negotiations. According to the mayoral nominee Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS), the coalition offered the Pirates major concessions, for example in the form of giving up responsibility for transport, but they did not budge. Hřib, on the other hand, gave his opinion in the sense that Spulu did not back down on essential matters at all and it would not be legitimate for her to actually be able to decide on her own in the city elections with a result of 25 percent.
In the past, the ANO movement offered Spolu temporary support to the minority council. Nacher said that the offer is still valid and the movement is willing to support Spolu in the council. However, it is still a time-limited offer, in the event of an agreement, according to Nacher, ANO would give the Spolu coalition until the end of February to form a majority council.
This year’s negotiations on the new leadership of the capital lasted 73 days, the longest in the history of the Czech Republic. Since the elections in the fall of 1994, the longest wait for the election of the new city leadership 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.
Svoboda and other members of Spolu said today that it is in the interest of all Prague citizens that an agreement be reached on the Prague government as quickly as possible, and that negotiations with the Pirates have led nowhere. According to Zdenek Zajíček (ODS), the requirement for a majority in the council for Spolu is essential, and the Pirates categorically rejected it, which Hřib also confirmed. “There is nothing further to discuss in this direction,” said Zajíček.
He added that the Spolu coalition did its best to create a municipal coalition on the government’s plan. According to him, it is not yet clear whether the possible minority council would consist only of representatives of Spolu, or other parties as well, if it will be a temporary or permanent solution, or if it will not even be possible to agree on a majority coalition during the negotiations. Spolu representatives would nevertheless like to see the leadership of Prague elected by the twice-interrupted constitutive assembly, which will continue on December 15.
“The basic blocking problem is that Spolu has not budged even an inch from its demands and continues to imagine that with the result of less than 25 percent of the votes, they will rule the entire city by themselves,” Hřib said after the meeting. He added that, according to the Pirates, the problem is also that, according to Spolu’s proposal, a special councilor for investments should be created. “Only operational matters remain in the gesches, on which it is not even possible to make a political profile,” he said. Zajíček said that the councilor for investment should primarily be in charge of large projects.
STAN vice-chairman Jan Lacina said that today’s meeting brought disappointment for him and his colleagues. He added that he would consider five places for Spolu, four for Pirates and two for STAN to be an adequate arrangement in a row. According to him, the city needs definitive advice, and not some temporary solution.
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.