Christian Democrats most successful party in local elections, Mayors triumph in Prague

The Christian Democrats won the most seats in municipal elections held around the Czech Republic on Friday and Saturday. The Mayors and Independents won in Prague, while ANO came first in six regional capitals.

As is usually the case, independent candidates took the most seats – just over 50,000 – in municipal elections held around the Czech Republic on Friday and Saturday.

TOGETHER for Prague – Tomáš Portlík and Alexandra Udženija|Photo: Michal Sváček, MFDNES + LN/Profimedia

The most successful national political party were the Christian Democrats with nearly 2,000 councillors elected, ahead of the Mayors and Independents, government leaders ANO and the Civic Democrats. Turnout at national level was 47 percent.

In Prague the Mayors and Independents party came first, with 23 percent of the vote. They finished ahead of Together for Prague (Spolu pro Prahu, an alliance of the Civic Democrats and TOP 09), who secured 22 percent of the vote, and Prague Together (Praha sobě), on 18 percent. Government leaders ANO came fourth in the capital with 14 percent, ahead of the Pirates on 9 percent.

Vít Rakušan and Petr Hlaváček|Photo: Kateřina Šulová, ČTK

The electoral leader of the Mayors and Independents in Prague, Petr Hlaváček, ruled out forming a city government with ANO and said his party would hold talks Together for Prague, Prague Together and the Pirates in the coming days.

While the Mayors and Independents and Together for Prague won the same number of seats on the 65-member council (17), the latter’s leader, Tomáš Portlík of the Civic Democrats, said the former had the right to the post of mayor as they had taken more of the vote.

The STAN movement's election headquarters|Photo: Patrik Uhlíř, ČTK

Municipal elections in Brno were won by a coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Mayors and Independents. They are set to hold talks on forming a local government with an alliance of the Civic Democrats, TOP 09 and independents, Green Brno, the Pirates and a group called Za Lužánky. Jakub Hruška, the leader of the winning coalition, is expected to become mayor.

ANO came first in six of 13 regional capitals: Karlovy Vary, Olomouc, Ostrava, Pardubice, Plzeň and (in coalition with independents) Zlín.

A total of 190,000 candidates stood for around 62,000 seats on local councils. The oldest person elected was 92-year-old Sylva Knedlová from Zlín. Around 30 18-year-olds won seats around the country.

Two municipalities, Martinice u Onšova in the Pelhřimov area and Rosička near Žďár nad Sázavou, recorded turnout of almost 100 percent.