ODS's Portlík Suggests Prague Coalition with Pirates Could Break Up After Elections

With about three weeks to go before Prague's municipal elections, the question of future coalitions at City Hall is coming up more and more often in the campaign debates. Tomáš Portlík, leader of the ODS list, said the current ruling trio — Spolu, the Pirates and STAN — probably shouldn't be reassembled.

"It would do us good to take a break from each other next term," Portlík said during a debate among candidates for Prague mayor organised by Seznam Zprávy. He pointed to the long-running conflicts that have marked the joint rule of ODS and the Pirates in the Czech capital.

Pirates recall the outgoing mayor's praise

Portlík's comments didn't sit well with Tereza Nisleová, leader of the Pirates' Prague list. She reminded him of a recent interview outgoing ODS mayor Bohuslav Svoboda gave to Deník N, in which he actually praised the cooperation with the Pirates and called it excellent.

Nisleová herself, asked about her preferred coalition partners, admitted she considers an alliance with Prague Sobě and STAN the optimal option. She had already ruled out cooperation with ANO earlier.

ODS has doubts about ANO

Portlík himself struck a skeptical note about a possible alliance with ANO during Wednesday's debate. "In a situation where the government wants to take money away from Prague, I can't imagine how I'd run the city together with ANO," he said, referring to the ruling movement's growing criticism of the city's finances. According to Minister Alena Schillerová, Prague's accounts allegedly hold up to 200 billion crowns sitting idle that the city can't invest — a figure now actively used in the campaign by ANO's Prague leader Jan Husbauer as well.

At the same time, ODS leadership has recently been ambiguous about a possible coalition with ANO. Just over the weekend, party chairman Martin Kupka fuelled speculation about a possible deal on CNN Prima News, saying that as party leader he cannot forbid a coalition with ANO, since ODS, as a democratic party, must make its decisions democratically.

Prague Sobě leader Adam Scheinherr warned of the dangers of an ODS-ANO alliance in response. "I'm terribly afraid of an ODS-ANO coalition, and on Sunday STAN leader Vít Rakušan added to that by not ruling out a coalition with ANO either — I unofficially call it 'ODSTANO', and we don't want that. It would be a disaster for our city," he said, adding that he would do everything possible to prevent such a coalition from forming.

ANO leader Jan Husbauer was the vaguest about post-election arrangements: "I'll go into coalition with whoever will build schools with me, solve the affordable housing issue, and who won't just sleep through the coalition but actually wants to work." He did clarify, however, that he wouldn't team up with the Pirates, since they were the first to rule out cooperation with his movement.

Leaders of all the major parties spoke about post-election arrangements at the Seznam Zprávy debate except for STAN — their representative Petr Hlaváček was unable to attend due to health reasons.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz