Děčín city council meeting, April 27, 2023, Děčín. From the left, deputy mayors Václav Němeček (ANO), Jaroslav Foldyna (SPD), mayor Jiří Anděl (ANO) and dismissed deputy mayor Jitka Flachsová (ANO).
Děčín – Děčín representatives dismissed four councilors. They are deputy Jitka Flachsová (ANO), councilor Ivana Poschová (SPD), councilor Miroslav Šefara, who also resigned from the SPD club today, and subsequently Radek Kudrnáč (ANO). Four members remained in the council and it does not have a quorum. ANO rules with the SPD in the 27-member parliament. Mayor Jiří Anděl (ANO) did not rule out the collapse of the coalition. At today's meeting, there was also a motion to dismiss the mayor, the vote failed by one vote. The representatives voted in secret.
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At the same time, the council met today to elect a deputy mayor instead of Jan Skalický (for ANO), who was removed from his position at the last meeting. Eventually, the proposal to replace it was withdrawn.
The coalition of ANO and SPD has so far had a majority of 16 votes in the parliament. Anděl cannot count on Skalicky and apparently not even Šefara. However, if the certainty of 14 votes remained, according to him, nothing would have to change. But after today, the support of 14 votes seems uncertain for him. “I am not ruling anything out at all now,” he said, adding that a possible new coalition should consist of three entities. Opposition representatives already announced after the elections that they could not imagine cooperation with the SPD.
Skalický proposed to dismiss the mayor, even at the last meeting he claimed that he would not take this step. Today he stated that the city needs a hard-working mayor, which Anděl is not, according to him. The angel said it was about revenge. Skalický also proposed the appeal of Poschová. Opposition representative Anna Lehká (Election for Děčín) said before the vote that the opposition was in favor of his proposals. She justified it by the fact that she is not satisfied with the city management, including the mayor.
Daniel Valko (SPD) proposed to dismiss Shefara. He said that the SPD club came to the opinion that communication with Šefara, as a non-SPD party member, was insufficient. According to him, some of his actions were in conflict with other SPD representatives.
The representatives again commented on the debated election of Skalicky to the council. The long-time lobbyist for the construction of a weir on the Elbe had a permanent residence in Děčín since the beginning of last August, the municipal elections were held in September. Because of this, a group of petitioners made a motion to invalidate the election, according to them, Skalický changed his residence because of the election. The court rejected the proposal, stating in its justification that Skalický has work and interest ties to Děčín, which are also linked to his actual stay in the city. Because of this, opposition representative Tomáš Brčák (ODS) proposed to dismiss Jitka Flachsová (ANO), because she rented an apartment to Skalické. “According to the court, I did not break any law by concluding a lease with Mr. Skalický,” Flachsová defended herself. Even after the dismissal of the deputy and two councilors, Brčák proposed the dismissal of the remaining members of the council. The city council now consists of mayor Anděl, deputies Jaroslav Foldyna (SPD) and Václav Němeček (ANO) and councilor Jan Palička (ANO).
Last year's elections in Děčín were won by the ANO movement with 11 mandates, formed a coalition with the SPD, which won five seats. In the opposition is the Election for Děčín with five seats, Náš Děčín has three seats, ODS won two seats and Pirates one.
