We would like to extend our congratulations to our four members from the Czech Republic who were all re-elected in their respective municipalities in the last Czech municipal elections. The elections took place on 5 and 6 October 2018 for all 6 533 councils across the country. The ODS (the Civic Democratic Party), which is a member of the ECR Group, and the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) secured 2,600 councillors which represents an increase of 8.5% (or 204 mandates) compared to the previous election.

 All of our four Members – Pavel Branda (Deputy Mayor of Rádlo), Štĕpánka Fraňková (Councillor of the city of Pardubice), Dan Jiránek (Councillor of the city of Kladno) and Oldřich Vlasák (Councillor of the city of Hradec Králové and ECR Vice-President) – were re-elected as members of their councils.

Furthermore, in an election that saw an increase in votes for ODS, Mr Jiránek is poised to lead the new coalition in the city of Kladno where he currently serves as a Councillor and previously served as a Mayor. Mr Vlasák, who is a former Mayor, topped the party list in Hradec Králové, receiving the highest number of preferential votes on the ODS list, jumping six places. Štĕpánka Fraňková has also been re-elected as the Councillor of the city of Pardubice, where she formerly served as a Mayor from 2010-2014. Pavel Branda, who is our Group's Coordinator in the CoR Commission for Cohesion Policy and EU Budget, received the second highest number of votes in Rádlo.

On top of the municipal elections, the Czech Republic also held its Senate elections, which took place in two rounds on 5-6 and 12-13 October. Of the 81 seats that make up the upper chamber, the country elected 27 new senators. Of those, the biggest share went to ODS which won in 10 constituencies and as a result became one of the biggest political groups in the 81-seat chamber.