It’s posturing. Even they don’t know what bothered the Pirates, says Svoboda
Prague does not have a new mayor for a record long time after the elections. The candidate for this position, Bohuslav Svoboda, nevertheless assumes that the agreement on a coalition on the government’s plan – between the coalition Together and Piráty with STAN – will be concluded in the capital during the first weeks of January. “Negotiations will take place later this year and we will try to conclude the negotiations in the first weeks of January. We are not the ones who had the right to have holidays,” says Svoboda in an interview with Echo24.
It was expected that you would be the mayor of Prague by this time. Instead, you are at the beginning of negotiations with Spolu again. Is it married?
This is a philosophical question, whether it is the beginning or the end. I’m always negotiating the same thing. I am negotiating a coalition on the government’s plan, that means a coalition of three basic parties, and from this point of view it is not the beginning for me, it is the continuation of something that has a plot, and it is always complicated in political negotiations and has all kinds of snags, but basically nothing changes that principle. We are still negotiating the same type of coalition. Let’s say that we are firmly convinced that it is the best option for Prague.
And what steps will you have to take now so that Prague has a legitimate leadership in the shortest possible time and that the will of the voters is finally fulfilled?
The steps are very simple. There are three of them and you can call them 3K. We will communicate, discuss compromises and, in the end, make a coalition. We were elected to make a difference. And we will fulfill our obligations. We have no other option now than to try to do this through further honest negotiations, we are trying to set up a majority government, when it is still true that we prefer the coalition variant on the government plan.
The Pirates, in particular, have made no secret of the fact that they have a problem working with Spolu from the beginning. In contrast to STANU, they publicly “spoiled” the negotiations in their early stages by saying that they did not want councilor Jan Wolf to be prosecuted. In the end, according to them, the biggest problem turned out to be that you want the mayor and at the same time six of the eleven members of the council, i.e. the majority.
It doesn’t matter how many councilors we have. The problem is that the Pirates reject this, which is the principle of every coalition at the municipal level and that it is a coalition that is built to be able to fulfill what it promised in the elections, that is to work for the benefit of Prague. We did not discuss places at all for the meeting. The only thing we care about is that it works. And that’s why we created a series of mechanisms. One of these fundamentals is, for example, that talking about the number of people on the council is completely pointless, because there is an agreement that the council is not overvoted. So, in the event that there is a disagreement on a matter of principle, it is not voted on and discussed until, thanks to communication and compromise, you reach a final agreement.
In other words, this is something that is meaningless from the point of view of what Mayor Hřib says. His other problem is that when the mayor has a majority in the council, he can still veto everything. But why would he veto against the council that has the majority? That’s bullshit. It is a contradiction in adjecto. The mayor’s veto was heard twice in the city’s modern history, I think. A veto means that the problem must be discussed and voted on by the entire council at the nearest council, so from this point of view the mayor’s veto is actually ineffective, because if the council’s opinion is different, it is of course canceled. Their other objection was that the criminally prosecuted person should not sit in the row. But the truth is that they said that at a stage when the nominations had not yet been decided and we did not say that we would nominate Mr. Wolf. In the end it turned out to be completely pointless as Mr. Wolf said he wasn’t running for council, so it was time for the Pirates to come up with another idea. However, we are aware that it is necessary to accept some compromises, and I hope that a coalition will emerge as a result.
I understand. But how do you explain that the Pirates did not understand this all along? Do you consider it your own failure to be able to convince them of this for the last three months?
Hello, I am a lifelong teacher. If a teacher believes that if a student does not do well in an exam, that is his failure, then he is a bad teacher. But it’s not like that. It also depends on whether the other party can understand and has the effort.
After previous negotiations failed, an attempt was made to elect at least a mayor a week before Christmas, with the help of votes from the ANO movement. Even that didn’t work out in the end. Didn’t you discuss it enough internally?
I’ll say it again. The procedure of electing the mayor was proposed by Dr. Marvanová, and we favored it, because the mayor has his defined powers, and these are very important for the municipality’s functionality and day-to-day activities. That’s why we wanted someone who belongs to the elected majority to take care of it. Then there were some strange stories going on that I don’t quite understand. And, of course, I don’t understand it when someone says at the last minute that what he proposed and campaigned for, that he doesn’t agree with it. So that you know how it was: Before the vote, I spent an hour with Dr. Marvan and we clarified everything. And the doctor said that I think we negotiated badly, that if she had acted, she would have negotiated the coalition practically immediately. I said, Hank, well, if that’s the case, I’ll have you appointed to the negotiating team, and I went down to call a meeting of our representatives where we actually agreed on this. We even determined who will be replaced. And when I went upstairs to share with the doctor the result of the meeting, I learned that there was a news in the press that he would not vote. Then I read that I was not chosen because of some photo… Now seriously. I was always interested in the interests of the people of Prague. I firmly believed that it was the same for all the remaining 18 representatives that I have in the team. Today it became clear, and personally I have to say that it is a human disappointment for me, that we all feel the same responsibility. For some, his image is more important than serving the people of Prague and the future of the city. To me, that’s posing! Dr. Marvanová repeatedly expressed her support in the past weeks and today. That’s why I don’t understand the sudden change in her attitude. I don’t think this is responsible behavior.
Regarding what will happen next: The window for further negotiations on the coalition is open until roughly mid-February. It emerged from the statements of other parties that the autumn talks failed because Spolu wanted to have both the mayor and the majority in the council at the same time. Do I understand correctly that you could also discount this requirement?
If it is not something that will harm Prague, I am able to talk about it, communicate and reach a consensus. The basic principle that we will follow in the negotiations is to bring benefits to Prague. In the elections, we promised that we would lead Prague forward so that as a city it would be a place for a happy life and that Prague would correspond to this, that Prague is the capital of the republic. We will subordinate everything to it. We are not able to go somewhere where we would be convinced that our agreement harms Prague. The fact that the negotiations with the Pirates finally got stuck on the number of representatives in the committees and the council is completely irrelevant for the people of Prague. You want to see results and deliver on the program they elected us for.
And was the number of your councilors really what bothered the Pirates, or did they only communicate that outwardly?
I’m convinced that even they don’t know what was wrong with the Pirates. It changed according to development. And when we removed that obstacle, a new obstacle appeared. If it hadn’t happened, I’m sure something else would have come along. And I am convinced that when the situation is now so heated, all parties involved will understand how bad it is for Prague and the people of Prague and we will come to an agreement. It is my belief that the partners with whom I will deal understand in principle what I do. We were elected to benefit Prague, otherwise we can of course go to the opposition, which will have a majority and nothing will work. I can’t allow such things.
Then there is the threat that the Pirates will not be approved to join the coalition by their regional forum. This is an essential condition.
All parties have their systems. We also have systems, as we agree with the leadership of the entire party on further development. We need different ones, but also others, that although we have systems, programs, different goals, opinions, we were all elected by the people of Prague and we all have a responsibility to the city.
A week before Christmas, as representatives of Prague’s Spolu, you met with party leaders, with Petr Fiala, Markéta Pekarová Adamová and Marian Jurečka, after the unsuccessful representation.
Before the assembly, on Wednesday, we discussed how the assembly would proceed. That was a crucial meeting. On Friday, we only informed the management about how the council meeting turned out. Nothing else.
And what did Prime Minister Fiala say to you about the result of the assembly where you were not elected mayor in the end?
He took note of what we told him. That the mayor was not elected. Nothing else really happened. We approved the budget and a whole range of submitted prints. So, in general, the problem of electing the mayor is certainly a serious matter and it cripples other capital cities in a way, but it is not a problem that would prevent the council from making a whole series of decisions and essential things that move Prague forward on Thursday. If we did not approve the budget, all Prague districts would not be able to have a budget next year and would have to work with a provisional budget. It needs to be taken as a significant shift, because we drew up that budget. The outgoing city administration did not compile it, which is very unusual. We had nothing, we passed it and even managed to declare it, so it was an absolute majority of the deputies, because the budget is accepted. This is what we informed the government about.
Was there any appeal from their side to come to an agreement as quickly as possible with the two other government parties, the Mayors and the Pirates?
However, we tried all the time honestly, consistently and patiently to find an agreement with the Pirate Party and the STAN movement and to give our city a new leadership with the support of 37 representatives out of 65. Unfortunately, it did not happen, but perhaps the days are not over. This is what we hope for, as well as the national chairmen of the party, who have shown full confidence in our negotiating team. This is important to us.
And when is your next meeting scheduled? Could we expect a deal in the coming weeks?
Negotiations will take place later this year and we will try to conclude those negotiations in the first weeks of the month. We are not the ones who were entitled to have holidays.
The elections to the Prague City Council took place as part of the municipal elections on September 23 and 24, 2022. This year’s municipal elections were won by the Spolu coalition (ODS, TOP 09 and KDU-ČSL), which won 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.