Prague is the last city in the country not to have elected its mayor and city council for the next four years following the elections last October. I’ll make this quick: The Pirate party has just 13 of the 65 seats in the city assembly. That’s the same as last time around, when it was able to cobble together a coalition to run the city, with its leader Zdeněk Hříb serving as mayor. But a grouping of parties called Spolu won the fall elections by taking 19 of the 65 seats. If Spolu, the Pirates and the STAN party (led by Petr Hlaváček) could strike a deal, the problem would be solved. The danger in the eyes of many is that Spolu will lose patience with Pirate intransigence (especially that of Zdeněk Hříb) and team up with the Ano party (led by former PM Andrej Babiš) and its 14 votes.
Hospodářské noviny points out that important investments worth billions of koruna are now frozen as a result of the impasse. In Černý Most alone, writes HN, three construction projects worth more than CZK 1 billion are just waiting for some signatures in order to get going. But this will have to wait until mid-February at the earliest, when the assembly is expected to meet next. In the meantime, project costs will keep rising.
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