Prague's coalition parties come to agreement after four months of talks

After months of negotiations, the five parties which won last September's municipal elections in Prague have finalised their coalition agreement. It should be approved and signed by the respective parties next week before their meeting on February 16, when they intend to formally elect the new city government headed by Bohuslav Svoboda as the new mayor.

The five-party coalition consisting of the Pirate Party, the Mayors and Independents, and Together, itself a coalition consisting of the Civic Democrats, TOP 09 and the Christian Democrats, won a comfortable majority in Prague in the municipal elections in September, but since then have been embroiled in complex negotiations.

Some headway was finally made in mid-January when Together offered for the Pirates and the Mayors and Independents to have a combined majority in the council, and further progress was made when the Pirates withdrew from the alliance they had previously established with Praha Sobě. In the meantime, the incumbent mayor Zdeněk Hřib has remained in office as caretaker.

Negotiations on the new leadership of Prague have lasted more than four months, the longest since the creation of the Czech Republic as an independent state.