Turnov, Czechia: two councillors leave ANO after local elections

In the town of Turnov, two councillors elected for the ANO movement, list leader Jaroslav Knížek and his deputy Miroslav Reichl, have left the party and will sit on the council as independents. In the municipal elections ANO came third in Turnov with 16% of the vote and was due to win four seats.

“Adults are behaving like little children”

Knížek, quoted by the ČTK news agency, explained that he wants to do local politics without the burden of national politics. He said it is not only about ANO but about other parties too: “These people no longer know how to behave decently.” The 60-year-old politician, who ended his ANO membership this week, admitted that his decision was also influenced by the way the Chamber of Deputies debated, on Friday and Saturday, moving the funding of Czech Television and Czech Radio to the state.

“Adults are behaving like little children. Unfortunately that includes the Chamber of Deputies, which is bad. But both sides are behaving badly. Nobody here is calming the situation, everyone is escalating it. In Turnov the world is still normal, and I want to help keep it that way,” he added.

The departure was first reported by Deník: Turnov mayor Tomáš Hocke (Mayors for the Liberec Region, elected on the Independent Bloc list) mentioned it at a demonstration on Wednesday. The mayor later confirmed it to Novinky as well: Knížek told him that the councillors elected for ANO will serve on the council as unaffiliated members. According to the mayor, the same applies to those on the list who were not members of the movement.

Not the first case in Turnov

According to Knížek, nobody is left in the local ANO branch: “My list was made up of two people from ANO and 25 independent candidates.”

A similar story has already played out in Česká Lípa and Semily. In Česká Lípa, two of the ten councillors elected for ANO left the movement, joined by one who was not a member but also no longer wanted to represent the ANO brand. All three joined the new coalition at city hall. In Semily, parliament member and councillor David Pražák left ANO, and two of his colleagues on the list were also said to do the same.

In Turnov, the winning Independent Bloc of Mayor Hocke and the PROTO group are trying to form a coalition. The councillors leaving ANO should not influence the post-election talks, and they should not be part of the future coalition, which has not yet been finalised.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz