The coalition of KDU-CSL and STAN won the Brno municipal elections this weekend with 27% of the vote, and have already announced plans for a broad coalition including ODS, TOP 09 and independents, the Pirates, the Greens and Za Lužánky. KDU-CSL’s Jakub Hruška, who will be the new mayor, announced the agreement of all parties at a press conference late yesterday evening. The only party who will not be included is ANO, which will thus be the only party in the opposition. The junior government parties, SPD and the Motorists, both failed to cross the 5% threshold for representation in the city council.
“The parties represented here today, KDU-CSL, STAN, ODS, TOP 09, the Greens, the Pirates, and Za Lužánky, have agreed that we will proceed together in establishing the Brno City Council,” said Hruška. “We will now seek programmatic agreement. I will be the Mayor of Brno as the leader of the winning party, and the composition of the Brno City Council will respect the election results.”
ANO will thus remain in opposition. “I do not consider it right to communicate with [ANO] now, we clearly declared before the elections that the platform on which we want to form a coalition is those who are here by my side,” said Hruška. The next meeting will take place today.
The proposed solution recalls a similar situation after the 2022 elections, when ODS leader and incumbent mayor Markéta Vaňková invited seven parties to the coalition, excluding only SPD and the Greens. The Pirates ultimately refused to join the coalition, so a coalition council was formed of ODS, TOP 09, ANO, KDU-ČSL, STAN and ČSSD. Even then, such a coalition was described by political scientist Michal Pink from Masaryk University as “a defect in democracy”, but its participants praised themselves for moving Brno forward together.
The new composition of the 55-member Brno city council is as follows:
- KDU-CSL and STAN – 27.38%, 18 seats
- ODS, TOP 09 and independents – 18.89%, 13 seats
- ANO 2011 – 17.14%, 11 seats
- Brno Greens (supported by Žít Brno, SEN 21, LES, Volt, Budoucnost, Kruh) – 8.91%, 6 seats
- TU! (Pirates and Fakt Brno) – 6.69%, 4 seats
- Za Lužánky – 5.26%, 3 seats
- SPD a nezávislí – 3.87%, 0 seats
- Motoristé – 2.69%, 0 seats
National picture
At the national level, independent candidates dominated the municipal elections as usual, winning a total of 50,084 seats in municipal assemblies, 2,352 more than in 2022.
Of the established national parties, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) again came in first with 2,722 seats, despite losing 530 seats in local assemblies. They were followed by Mayors and Independents (STAN), Civic Democrats (ODS) and ANO, according to the final results published on the election website today.
However, all four of those parties nonetheless lost hundreds of seats compared to the previous elections in 2022. This year, STAN came second in number of seats, overtaking ODS who came third. ANO once again ranked fourth, while SPD, the Pirates and TOP 09 also performed worse than four years ago.
Voter turnout was 48% in the municipal elections, which was higher than the 46.07% recorded in 2022.
The Social Democrats (SOCDEM) suffered the most significant decline, losing 579 municipal representatives, and now have only 220. ODS saw the second-largest decline, losing 573 seats for a new total of 1,721. The Communists (KSCM) fared significantly worse, winning only 94 seats – 372 fewer than in 2022. Similarly, the far-right SPD won 166 seats – 326 fewer than in 2022.
ANO lost 98 assembly seats, and now holds 1,650. TOP 09 saw a loss of 102 representatives, bringing its total to 326. The Pirates secured 199 assembly seats, 75 fewer than four years ago. STAN lost 44 seats, and now hold 1,810 seats in municipal assemblies.
Our Czechia, a new movement led by South Bohemian Regional Governor Martin Kuba (formerly ODS), won 170 seats in its first municipal elections, and the junior government Motorists party won just 20 seats in municipal authorities nationwide.
Representatives elected from each party, compared with election results from 2022 and 2018:
| Party | Seats 2026 | Seats 2022 | Seats 2018 |
| KDU-CSL | 2,722 | 3,252 | 3,645 |
| STAN | 1,810 | 1,854 | 2,601 |
| ODS | 1,721 | 2,294 | 2,600 |
| ANO | 1,650 | 1,748 | 1,684 |
| TOP 09 | 326 | 428 | 484 |
| SOCDEM | 220 | 799 | 1,955 |
| Pirates | 199 | 274 | 358 |
| Our Czechia | 170 | – | – |
| SPD | 166 | 492 | 161 |
| KSCM | 94 | 466 | 1,470 |
| Motorists | 20 | 0 | – |
| Independent candidates | 50,084 | 47,732 | 44,365 |
| Turnout (%) | 48.00 | 46.07 | 47.34 |
Source: www.volby.gov.cz
