Milan Urban to Lead SPD in Prague Mayoral Race – 2024 Elections

Milan Urban to Lead SPD in Prague Municipal Elections

Milan Urban, currently the head of the SPD club in the Prague city assembly, has been selected as the SPD’s candidate for Prague mayor, November reports indicated. Josef Nerušil will remain the chairman of the Prague branch of the party, following a re-run conference to address concerns about the initial election process, according to reports.

The municipal elections are scheduled for October 9th and 10th of this year. Nerušil announced the decision after today’s regional conference of the movement.

Alongside Urban and Nerušil, the SPD’s leadership in Prague will include Pavel Frydrych, chairman of the control committee of the Prague 15 assembly, Vladimíra Bondarenková, a Prague 13 assembly member, Klára Cingrošová, Jiří Fořt, and Vítězslav Novák, a Prague 8 assembly member.

“I am prepared to lead SPD back to the Prague Magistrate. Our task is to protect the people of Prague from the mischief of progressives. We want a Prague that is free, rich for its inhabitants, clean, fun, and safe,” Urban stated. He added that the SPD will begin its campaign immediately, aiming to finalize candidate lists across all city districts as quickly as possible.

The re-run conference was prompted by questions raised by some party members regarding the fairness of the initial election, as reported by Forum24. The first conference was held at the end of November.

Urban will again lead the SPD’s candidate list in Prague, as he did in the previous municipal elections nearly four years ago. In 2022, the SPD ran in Prague in collaboration with Trikolora, the PES movement, and independent candidates, securing 5.2 percent of the vote and three seats in the 65-member city assembly. Urban, Nerušil, and Zdeněk Seidl were the elected representatives.

Nerušil indicated that the SPD is open to continuing its collaboration with the same parties as in the previous elections. “In the coming days, we will invite them to negotiations regarding joint candidates,” he said.

Several other parties have already announced their leaders for the upcoming elections. Tomáš Portlík, the mayor of Prague 9 and chairman of the Spolu club in the city assembly, will lead the ODS. The Pirates have nominated economist and Prague 4 assembly member Tereza Nislerová as their candidate for mayor. Petr Hlaváček, the current deputy mayor, is the sole candidate for the leadership position within Prague STAN. Tomáš Kaplan will lead the Christian Democrats, and Adam Scheinherr, the chairman of Prague Sobě, will head that party’s list.

The 2022 Prague municipal election resulted in a victory for the Spolu coalition, which received the most votes and seats, followed by ANO 2011 in second place. The Czech Pirate Party, led by then-Mayor Zdeněk Hřib, finished third. A new coalition consisting of Spolu, the Pirates, and STAN was formed five months after the election, with Bohuslav Svoboda becoming the new mayor.

Milan Urban has been a member of the Prague city assembly on and off since November 2, 2002, also serving from October 16, 2010 to October 11, 2014, and again since September 24, 2022. He is an architect by profession and has worked in the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, and the United Arab Emirates. He previously served as chairman of the supervisory board of Pražská plynárenská (Prague Gasworks).