Ostrava election debate divides city hall's wins, failures

Ahead of Ostrava's municipal elections on 9–10 October 2026, the city's opposition and the ruling coalition led by Mayor Jan Dohnal (Spolu) are arguing over what the city administration has, and hasn't, managed to achieve in recent years. The sharpest disputes centre on the fate of a unique concert hall and an abandoned redevelopment project in the Bedřiška district.

What the opposition says

Former Ostrava mayor Tomáš Macura, who won the previous municipal election for ANO before breaking with party leader Andrej Babiš and moving into opposition, where he founded the JDETO!!! movement, admits that the new city leadership has finished some of the projects he started — for example, the recently completed shooting range, the reconstruction of the Frýdlant bridges and the rebuilding of Pavilion G at the Černá Louka exhibition grounds.

But he says many other projects have barely moved in three and a half years — for instance, the redevelopment of the area around the Church of the Holy Spirit, Dr Beneš Square, and a long-needed retirement home in the Hulváky district. The opposition also points to the construction of a unique concert hall, a flagship city project that was supposed to be half-finished by now but has seen only minimal progress. As for the redevelopment of the Bedřiška district, former deputy mayor Zuzana Bajgarová says the new leadership has abandoned it altogether.

Concert hall costs have nearly tripled

The opposition Ostrava Left party recalls that under former mayor Macura, city investment was deliberately curbed specifically to save money for the concert hall. Yet the building still hasn't been built, and its estimated cost has since risen from 1.5 billion to more than 4 billion crowns. Ostrava Left councillor Martin Juroška believes the city should have invested in housing instead — renovating municipal flats, buying back buildings from the company Heimstaden, and building new housing.

How the city hall responds

Mayor Jan Dohnal counters that the coalition is made up of several parties, each pulling for its own part of the programme, but says a significant share of the shared goals has been achieved. Among the completed or modernised facilities, he cites the swimming pool at Čapkárna, the SAP sports complex in Poruba and the Torax Arena, as well as the start of construction on a new penguin pavilion at the zoo and the completion of the shooting range mentioned above. Construction continues on the VOX concert hall and new parking facilities, and sites are being prepared for new housing and commercial development.

City hall also points to major investors who have come to the city — including BMW in the Mošnov industrial zone and Vitesco in the Hrušov district — and to increased funding for city districts, which Dohnal says had gone underfunded for years. It is precisely this increase that part of the opposition criticises: Macura argues that a large share of the city budget went to the districts, leaving no money for strategic projects, and he calls the current leadership the weakest in the past 20 years.

The Ostrava Left opposition also points to a shortage of municipal housing: a development concept exists, but no concrete steps are being taken to expand the housing stock, and the city continues to sell buildings and plots to developers instead of growing its own supply of affordable housing.

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Source: novinky.cz