Shift in Prague? Together, they are brimming with optimism after dealing with the Pirates
On Monday, the Spolu coalition sent the Pirates and the STAN movement a new offer for the composition of the council, in which they offered them a majority, a total of six seats out of eleven, and effectively backed down. According to the current proposal, the Pirates should get four departments, STAN two and Spolu, including the mayor, would have five seats in the Council.
“It seems that after a long time the negotiations have been very constructive. I would like to appreciate it, and we really hope that we can finish the work on the document in the coming weeks and finally elect the leadership at the council on February 16,” said Zdeněk Zajíček from the ODS positively after the meeting of the negotiating teams.
The joint leader and candidate for mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS) also commented on the meeting in an optimistic spirit. “The negotiations took place in the spirit that we wanted to come to an agreement. I am convinced that a coalition on the government’s plan is the right one and that it is worth giving up personal ambition to open the negotiations. It was successful and it seems to be coming to a positive end,” he added.
Almost four months have passed since the municipal elections and Prague still does not have a new leadership in place because the parties cannot come to an agreement. It is a record product.
The interior gave Spolu the go-ahead for casting in Prague. They buy the legal opinion
Homemade
Completion of discrepancies
The Pirates on the offer on Monday that it is “finally a move in the right direction.” However, outgoing mayor Zdeněk Hřib stated that there is a need to discuss the offer in detail, for example in the area of a new councilor for city services and infrastructure. “It is not entirely clear to us if this is not a variation on the originally proposed investment governor, which the Pirates and STAN unequivocally rejected already in December,” he said.
Zajíček also indicated certain disagreements. According to him, it is worth “clarifying and finishing”. Therefore, five working teams will be created to deal with these matters. The parties then want to meet again on Monday evening and decide whether the ambiguities have been removed, so that a coalition could be concluded.
On Tuesday, Hřib also praised the constructiveness during the negotiations. According to him, the working teams will deal with issues related to new committees that are to be established, such as the energy committee. For example, pirates would also like to enforce control mechanisms in city companies, which they sought in the past election period.
The STAN movement agrees with the Spolu proposal and praised the proposal. According to STAN leader Petr Hlaváček, there is, for example, confusion regarding the distribution of tasks or coalition mechanisms.
Together in Prague, it gave way to the Pirates, surrendered mostly in the council
Homemade
The municipal elections in Prague were won by the Spolu coalition consisting of ODS, TOP 09 and KDU-ČSL, the ANO movement finished second, followed by the Pirates and Prague itself in fourth place. Together, led by leader Bohuslav Svoboda, stated immediately after the elections that it would be used to create a coalition based on the government’s plan, i.e. with the STAN and Pirates movement.
Since the elections, the Spolu party has already made several proposals towards the Pirates, but it did not lead to an agreement. It was the same with the proposals from the Pirates, led by outgoing mayor Zdenek Hřibe, who after the elections concluded the so-called Stability Alliance with the fourth Prague. Together, it also rejected their proposals, because it does not want to sit with Jan Čižinski’s movement in the city administration.
“We don’t see a single reason why it shouldn’t be possible to conclude a coalition on the government’s floor plan in Prague,” Zajíček avoided answering a direct question about whether he would reject the conclusion of a coalition if the Pirates insisted on theirs with Prague Sobě.
The Spolu proposal does not include Prague’s participation in the city management, which Hřib also wanted to discuss at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We received an offer that is at the level of the government floor plan. Prague’s categorical rejection of itself is heard repeatedly by the Together coalition. For that, we have to have a separate meeting with Prague itself,” Jana Komrsková from Pirátů left this question open.