The ANO movement will not join the municipal coalition in Liberec after the 2026 municipal elections, and after twelve years leading the city will go into opposition. The leader of Liberec's ANO, Tomáš Rec, said that not being part of the coalition was a disappointment for the movement and that it had sought to be involved.[1][2]
Coalition
Four of the eleven candidate lists made it into the new council. On Sunday, 11 October 2026, the winning Starostové for the Liberec Region, the Lepší Liberec movement and the Liberec otevřený lidem group agreed on a coalition together with the Czech Pirate Party. In the 39-member council, they are expected to have 31 votes.[1][2]
ANO's position
Rec said that ANO had discussed possible cooperation with Starostové, with Lepší Liberec, and with the Czech Pirate Party and the Liberec otevřený lidem group, but the talks did not lead to an agreement. The movement has eight councillors, and Rec described working in opposition as difficult. According to him, "we'll see in four years."[1][2]
In the previous term, ANO had four deputy mayors on Liberec's city council. In 2026, only one of them ran for the movement again. Martina Teplá, another former deputy mayor, led the Lepší Liberec candidate list after leaving ANO; that group will be part of the coalition. The two remaining deputy mayors elected for ANO in 2022 did not run again.[1][2]
Related entries: ANO, 2026 Municipal and Senate Elections, Liberec, Senate of the Czech Republic, STAN, Znojmo, Šumperk
Coalitions without ANO in the Karlovy Vary Region and in Šumperk
In Aš and in Mariánské Lázně, where ANO won the 2026 municipal elections, coalitions were formed without the movement. ANO will go into opposition there, as it will in Cheb and Sokolov. Among the largest towns in the Karlovy Vary Region, it will therefore lead the town hall only in Karlovy Vary, where the movement won the elections for the third time and is forming a coalition for the third time, this time with two partners instead of one. Across the whole region, ANO won 5.57 percent of council seats, compared with 7.31 percent in the previous elections.[3][4]
In Aš, ANO, led by mayor Vítězslav Kokoř, won ten of 23 seats, two more than four years earlier. The second-placed Neplaš platform, with nine seats, reached a preliminary coalition agreement with the PRO Zdraví and Fajn Aš groups for a coalition with 12 seats, the final form of which the groups' representatives were still finalising.[3][4]
In Mariánské Lázně, ANO and Independents won eight of 21 seats, and Starostové and Independents won six. A coalition with the narrowest possible majority of 11 seats was formed by Starostové and Independents, ODS, KDU-ČSL, Naše Česko and Za lepší Mariánské Lázně. ANO and Změna pro Mariánské Lázně, with the support of Volba pro kraj, will have ten seats in opposition. Mayor Martin Hurajčík (ANO) told the Czech News Agency that party representatives had held talks, but no agreement was reached.[3][4]
In Šumperk, Nezávislá volba, STAN and Srdcem pro Šumperk agreed on a coalition, which has 14 seats in the 27-member council. ANO, which won the elections with the same number of eight seats as Nezávislá volba, is going into opposition, as are SPD and Šumperáci. The mayor is to be Nezávislá volba's leader, Martin Kuchtík, who will replace the outgoing mayor, Miroslav Adámek (ANO). The first deputy mayor is to be STAN's leader, Leona Pekařová, and the second deputy mayor is to be Filip Valenta of Nezávislá volba. On the nine-member council, Nezávislá volba is to hold four seats, STAN three, and Srdcem pro Šumperk two.[5][6]
Kuchtík said that the three-party coalition was decided on policy grounds. The Šumperáci group, which had been in a coalition with ANO and ODS in the previous term and won three seats, did not join the coalition because, according to representatives of the future coalition, there was no agreement on its programme. The inaugural council meeting is planned for 9 November 2026, and the coalition partners intended to sign the coalition agreement on Friday, 23 October.[5]
Results of the second round of the 2026 Senate elections
In the second round of the 2026 Senate elections, Starostové a nezávislí, together with Starostové for the Liberec Region, won seats for ten of their 14 candidates, two of whom had already succeeded in the first round. ODS won seven Senate seats, of which it was defending five. The ANO movement lost a senator, as none of its 13 finalists succeeded. KDU-ČSL defended all three of its seats, and TOP 09 both of its own. The Czech Pirate Party lost its direct representation in the Senate, as none of its candidates made it into the upper house.[7]
In the first round, five candidates won seats outright: Jan Grolich (KDU-ČSL), Jan Grulich (TOP 09) in the Rychnov district, Tomáš Fiala (Naše Česko) in the Strakonice district, Jan Sobotka (STAN) in the Trutnov district, and Zbyněk Linhart (STAN) in the Děčín district. No candidate of the governing parties, including ANO, won a seat at that time. In the Plzeň-město constituency, former Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces Karel Řehka (STAN) won, having taken 32.86 percent of the vote in the first round, with ANO candidate Lucie Kantorová at 27.26 percent.[7]
Chronology
- — In Šumperk, Nezávislá volba, STAN and Srdcem pro Šumperk agreed on a coalition; the ANO movement will be in opposition. ČTK / České noviny Hanácká Drbna
- — The coalition of Spolu, the Naše Znojmo group and the STAN movement is to continue in Znojmo, while the ANO movement remains in opposition. iROZHLAS
- — In the second round of the Senate elections, Mayors and Independents together with Mayors for the Liberec Region won ten of the 22 contested seats and the ODS won seven, while none of the ANO movement's thirteen finalists succeeded. Echo24
- — After the municipal elections, coalitions without the winning ANO movement were agreed in Aš and Mariánské Lázně in the Karlovy Vary Region; ANO goes into opposition there, so among the region's largest towns it will keep the town hall only in Karlovy Vary. ČTK / České noviny Novinky.cz
- — After the municipal elections the ANO movement will not be part of the ruling coalition in Liberec and, after twelve years, will move into opposition. Liberecká Drbna Deník: Liberecký kraj
Sources
- Liberecká Drbna — 12 October 2026
- Deník: Liberecký kraj — 12 October 2026
- ČTK / České noviny — 14 October 2026
- Novinky.cz — 14 October 2026
- ČTK / České noviny — 22 October 2026
- Hanácká Drbna — 22 October 2026
- Echo24 — 17 October 2026