Illustrative photo – Constituent city council, October 19, 2022, Ostrava. Mayor Tomáš Macura (YES).
Ostrava/Prague – A significant majority of the Ostrava club of representatives of the ANO movement supports the retention of Mayor Tomáš Macura in office. Club members will not call for a vote of confidence at Wednesday's council meeting. Kateřina Šebestová (ANO) said this to ČTK after the meeting of the club. At the afternoon meeting, 18 of the 21 members of the representative club of the ANO movement met. Macura announced his departure from ANO on Monday after long-term disagreements with the movement's leadership. This morning, he stated that the leadership of the movement wants him to leave the post of mayor and is exerting pressure on the members of the representative club. Šebestová also talks about threats to abolish the regional organization in Ostrava.
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“At today's meeting of the club, we agreed on a significant majority support for the mayor and the entire city management to stay. Given that we did not reach a complete agreement, we will continue to deal with the situation. However, it will not be the subject of Wednesday's council meeting,” said Šebestová. She added that the members of the club will not call for a vote of confidence in the mayor or the city management. “There are 21 of us, three people were not present today because two are outside Ostrava and one is sick. The situation is such that our members are under terrible pressure,” said Šebestová.
Jan Richter, the chief manager of the movement, arrived in Ostrava today and held talks with the local mayor and the new chairman of the Ostrava organization, Richard Vereš, at the Silesia-Ostrava town hall. But according to him, it was a normal visit. “I came as I normally go to organizations throughout the Czech Republic and I have a meeting with the chairman of the regional organization. That's all,” said Richter, who refused to comment further.
However, Šebestová rejects his claim. According to her, today, on the other hand, some members of the club of representatives were under a lot of pressure from Richter. Šebestová claims that he threatened them with the cancellation of the regional organization in Ostrava if they supported Macura in the position of mayor. “It is absurd what practices we can use in the movement to enforce revenge,” said Šebestová.
Governor Ivo Vondrák (ANO) also spoke about the escalating pressure today. In the January presidential election, the mayor and governor did not support their party leader, Andrej Babiš. They announced that they had voted for his opponent, Petr Pavel, who eventually won the presidential election. Vondrák already gave up the position of deputy chairman of the movement last week, and Macura then announced his departure from the ANO movement on Monday and said that he would offer the position of mayor to the representative club and let his colleagues decide on his further work at the head of the city.
< p>Diary Ntoday stated that the ANO board voted last week on the proposal to expel Vondrák, Macura and his deputy Zuzana Bajgarová from ANO. This follows from the documents that the presidency sent to the regional organization of the movement. Macura confirmed to Deník N that he has a proposal for expulsion. According to the first vice-chairman of ANO, Karel Havlíček, the board only resolved it after Vondrák's departure from the meeting because the governor was no longer a member of the board at that time. to his departure from the head of the city and the opposition. He also pointed out that the existing coalition in Ostrava could change its form so that it would not include representatives of the government parties. He stated that, in his opinion, the movement had lost all inhibitions. According to Havlíček, Macura and Vondrák are captive to conspiracy theories.
In the fifty-five-member council, the current coalition formed by ANO, the coalition Together (ODS, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09) and Pirates has a majority of 33 votes, ANO has 21 in the council mandates. In opposition are the movement Ostravak, SPD, Starostové pro Ostrava and the Ostrava Left. According to Šebestová, the club of representatives will definitely meet at least on Tuesday, which is the usual date. The members meet the day before the meeting of the council, which starts on Wednesday at 09:00 at the Ostrava municipality.
