The first communist regional governor in the Czech Republic since the 1989 Velvet Revolution took office this week in Ústí nad Labem. Oldřich Bubeníček took over the post in the North Bohemian city on Tuesday as a result of the Communist Party (KSČM) winning a regional election in October. KSČM formed a coalition with the Social Democrats (ČSSD), with the Communists taking six posts of the 11 seats in the regional council.
The Communists won 20 seats in the 55-seat Ústí Regional Assembly; ČSSD took 13 seats. This gives the coalition a strong majority of 33 votes. Meanwhile, the Severočeši.cz (North Bohemians) party now has nine seats, while the Civic Democrats (ODS) have seven. The new party PRO!kraj (For the Region) has six deputies.
