Prague’s new mayor will be Zdeněk Hřib, the leader of Prague’s Pirate party. That’s the outcome of nearly three weeks of coalition negotiations following local elections in which three parties that won 13 seats in the city assembly. The other two parties (Praha sobě and Spojené sily pro Prahu, a coalition between TOP 09 and STAN) won a slightly lower number of votes, so they agreed to back down on their own claims for the mayor’s post. For the property sector, the most important news is that the person who will be in charge of urban development is Petr Hlaváček from the coalition party. That post was controlled for the last few years by the Green party, whose primary goal was essentially to block new construction in the city. Critics of the decision to allow the new Pirate mayor warn that Hřib is unexperienced in politics. Cynics are likely to suggest that Prague mayors are often picked for exactly that quality.
