ANO in Prague will support Svoboda in the mayoral election. The composition of the city council is not yet clear — ČT24 — Czech Television
The parties will continue to discuss the agenda items presented by ANO. Representatives of the parties told journalists on Wednesday. Spolu won the elections in Prague ahead of ANO, Piráty, Prague Self, STAN and SPD.
“Since the meeting started on Sunday, that time was not enough. We have agreed for the moment that we will honor the winner of the election, we will support the election of associate professor Svoboda as mayor,” said MP and ANO leader Patrik Nacher.
“We are ready to really propose Bohuslav Svoboda as a candidate for mayor, we are ready to give the full number of votes in this direction, we welcome that it is ANO that is ready to support Svoboda as a leader of Spolu. We take it as the next step, when we set up council committees, and we expect that this should be followed by the permission of the whole council,” added the chairman of representatives of Spolu Zdeněk Zajíček (ODS).
Together, it wanted a coalition based on the government model
The election of Svoboda as mayor should be the first point of Thursday’s meeting of Prague representatives. Together, ANO has a narrow majority of 33 votes in the 65-member council. If Svoboda becomes mayor, he will have his legal powers, but he will not be a member of the council, which will remain in its current composition, with the difference that Hřib will no longer hold the position of mayor. The serving council will cease to exist only when all 11 members of the council have been elected.
Together, they initially negotiated a possible coalition on the ground plan of the government one, i.e. with the Pirates and STAN, but the negotiations ended unsuccessfully last week. Spolu then began negotiating with ANO about a minority temporary council composed of Spolu representatives. ANO presented 15 program points that it supports. The parties are now negotiating about them.
“The situation where there is some strange way of looking for some loophole in the law that clearly states that the mayor is part of the 11-member council and a structure is created in which the mayor is not part of the council, it is clearly written in the law, is clearly very similar a situation where the serving president, Miloš Zeman, interprets the constitution creatively,” the current mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) criticized the approach of the two most powerful entities that emerged from the autumn elections in a broadcast on Czech Television.
The possibilities have expanded, says Zajíček
“We will not allow the advice itself at this time. Considering that we were not able to agree 100 percent in some moments, it is fairer for us if we do it this way,” said Nacher.
According to the chairman of representatives of Spolu Zdeňko Zajíček (ODS), the parties differ, for example, in the way of solving some problems in transport or the insufficient capacity of secondary schools.
Since Wednesday’s decision, the parties have promised to buy time to agree on a majority coalition. At the same time, the representatives of the parties admitted the possibility of discussing it among themselves. However, Svoboda and Zajíček reiterated that Together is still promoting the formation of a coalition on the government’s blueprint.
“We will discuss the government version, but we will also seek support from other representative clubs,” said Zajíček. Nacher said that YES he respects that. “I dare to say that with this (Together and ANO negotiations), the possibilities of how to form a majority coalition have expanded,” he said.
Coalition negotiations began immediately after the elections. Since then, representatives of the individual parties have been meeting continuously. Together, they advocated the formation of a coalition period, such as the government one, i.e. with the Pirates and STAN, but the negotiations ended unsuccessfully. This year’s negotiations on the new city leadership are the longest in the history of Prague since 1993.
The Spolu coalition won the municipal elections in Prague this year, winning 19 mandates in the 65-member council. ANO ended second with 14 mandates. The third Pirates have 13 representatives and Praha Sobě 11 mandates. Five representatives belong to STAN, the sixth SPD won three mandates.
Electoral
participation
46.07
%
Processed
precincts
100
%