Zajíček said that in the case of the Prague council, the distribution of forces applies, which was announced earlier, i.e. five places for TOGETHER, four for Pirates and two for STAN. He also added that within the SPOLU coalition, the individual parties (ODS, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09) have already agreed on the distribution of their five mandates.

However, Zajíček did not share the details, saying that the parties still have to approve it. “We’re not going to name any names at this point, but we have an agreement that will be fulfilled,” he said. The other parties have not yet announced the planned staffing of the councils.

On Thursday, the meeting will continue into the night in a narrower composition, the representatives of the parties will finalize the wording of the program and solve personnel issues. The parties want to elect the new leadership of the metropolis at the assembly on February 16.

Politicians said that at Thursday’s meeting they wanted to resolve all issues and come up with the final documents that each party needs to approve the agreement. The internal party process at the Pirates is the longest, as it involves voting by the membership base and takes seven days with discussion. According to Pirates negotiators Jana Komrsková, this process should start at the weekend, Spolu and STAN want to approve the agreement next week.

As for the program, according to the politicians, there is more or less agreement, but the document needs to be finalized in terms of formality and style. “In terms of goals, I think we have found intersections and agreement, now we are really just fine-tuning the formula,” said Zajíček. The negotiators also said that Thursday’s meeting is likely to be long and there will be no more media outlets.

The agreement envisages that TOGETHER falls under the responsibility of finance and budget, social affairs, housing and healthcare, culture and tourism and infrastructure. Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS) should then be in charge of security, foreign relations and energy. The areas of IT and innovation, the environment, property and transport will fall to the pirates. STAN will have councilors for territorial development and education and sports.

Zajíček added that they will continue such negotiations with ANO and Praha Sobě regarding the filling of representative committees.

Complicated negotiations

Negotiations on a coalition on the government plan of TOGETHER, Pirates and STAN have been going on since the elections, and have gradually become more complicated for various reasons. The pirates were particularly upset that TOGETHER wanted a majority in the council and the post of deputy for investment, which would manage large flows of money across agencies. TOGETHER, in turn, criticized the Pirates’ attempt to invite Prague into the coalition. The situation was unblocked in mid-January by concessions from both sides.

Negotiations on the new leadership of Prague lasted for more than four months, the longest since the creation 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 a day longer. In 1994 and 1998, the mayors were elected less than two weeks after the elections.

The coalition TOGETHER won the municipal elections last fall, 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.