MP, mayor, and now Senate candidate: ANO's Jitka Volfová collects yet another post

Jitka Volfová — a member of the Czech Chamber of Deputies, mayor of Česká Lípa, and regional councillor from the ANO movement — has announced her candidacy for the Senate in the Česká Lípa constituency, which also covers parts of the Liberec and Mělník districts. She broke the news to voters on social media, describing it as the result of long deliberation.

Volfová already juggles several political roles at once: she is mayor of the 37,000-strong town of Česká Lípa, a member of the Liberec Region's regional assembly, and, since October, an ANO deputy in the lower house of parliament. There, she sits on the budget committee and the committee for public administration and regional development, chairs the subcommittee on housing policy and construction, and serves as deputy chair of the subcommittee on police, firefighters and municipal police. According to her profile on the parliament's website, she also belongs to three other subcommittees.

ANO's regional congress wanted someone else

Volfová's nomination came as a surprise: the regional ANO congress had earlier recommended a different candidate — Petr Král, the independent mayor of Mimoň. But the party leadership, headed by Andrej Babiš, chose to back Volfová instead, less than a year after she won her seat in parliament.

"I see it like in sports: if you have the chance to field your strongest lineup, you do it," Volfová said, commenting on her nomination. She insisted the decision wasn't about personal ambition, but about a combination of trust — from voters and from the party — along with her own belief that she can be useful to the region.

Observers suggest the real reason behind the party leadership's decision may lie elsewhere: in the same constituency, Liberec Region Governor Martin Půta, running for the "Mayors for the Liberec Region" movement, is also seeking a Senate seat — and Babiš has long harboured a personal dislike for him. ANO, it seems, decided to field its strongest possible rival against him.

Will she stay on as mayor?

If Volfová wins the Senate race, she will lose her seat in the Chamber of Deputies along with all her committee and subcommittee posts. But she intends to keep her job as mayor of Česká Lípa — and is once again heading ANO's list for the upcoming municipal elections. "Česká Lípa remains my priority. Daily contact with people and hands-on experience in municipal politics matter most to me — it helps me represent the region's interests better at the national level," she said.

Opposition members of the city council have previously criticised Volfová over the costly renovation of her mayoral office, which ended up costing the city 1.6 million crowns — twice the amount initially estimated from the published contracts. One councillor said it was strange to hear complaints about the city lacking money while a million crowns was spent on the leadership's office without any public debate.

Who could take her seat in parliament

Should Volfová win the Senate seat, her place in the Chamber of Deputies would, under the replacement rules, go to Ralsko Mayor Miloslav Tůma — a figure whose tenure running the town has been marked by numerous controversies, some of which are due to reach court even before the election (notably, a lawsuit filed by a company against the town of Ralsko is being heard in a court of first instance shortly before the vote).

Besides Volfová and Governor Půta, the race for the Senate seat in the Česká Lípa constituency also includes Vít Vomáčka, a former deputy and deputy mayor of Cvikov, running for ODS; Leoš Hamrski, the KSČM candidate; and incumbent Senator Jiří Vosecký, who is defending his mandate. Vosecký previously represented "Mayors for the Liberec Region" in the Senate, but left the movement after losing to Půta in the party's primary and is now running as an independent — he has held his Senate seat for twelve years running.

Půta and Volfová are seen as the clear front-runners in the race — a pair of politicians who once worked closely together: from 2016 to 2020, Volfová served as first deputy governor of the Liberec Region under none other than Martin Půta.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz