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Independent civic slate for Prague 1

Programme for Prague 1 · municipal elections 9–10 October 2026

“One for all, all for Prague One”

Life in Prague 1 does not need much to be good: clear rules, and the will to introduce and enforce them. This programme grew out of the first citizens’ assembly in Prague 1 and out of public meetings with residents.

13,000
short-term rental listings in central Prague (IPR, 3/2023)
48%
of residents are disturbed at night by drunks – the most common complaint (PAQ Research)
81%
of Prague 1 residents object to the number of non-residents parking here
12,000
petition signatures target → the petition committee of the Chamber of Deputies
Our mission

Join us in tackling the problems of Prague 1

Are you happy with the state of Prague 1 today? We are not. We want change – will you help us?

Prague 1 is the historic centre of Prague, home to world-famous monuments and to many cultural and educational institutions: Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, St Nicholas Church in the Lesser Town, as well as the National Theatre, the Czech Philharmonic, the National Gallery, Charles University, the National Museum and the Academy of Sciences.

In the stories of these places, a distant past comes alive. It is our duty not to let them fall asleep and turn into a silent backdrop for tourist selfies. We must keep finding ways to make them speak today’s language, to make them places of encounter and inspiration. Imagination and creativity are essential human abilities – and without constant care for them, we lose ourselves, and society goes blind and coarse.

The three pillars our programme for Prague 1 stands on

Pillar number 1 Ban short-term tourist accommodation in flats

Over 13,000 flats in central Prague serve as Airbnb-style rentals, many of them illegally. The Prague 1 authority has the power to shut those operations down. Flats are for permanent housing and must not run as Airbnbs. What are rules for if nobody enforces them? We will!

Pillar 1 ↓ Pillar number 2 A resident of Prague 1 matters more than a visitor

It is visitors who cause excessive noise and mess, clog the traffic and take up parking spaces. And politicians do nothing. It is absurd for Prague 1 to function as a mere stage set for tourists. Cleaning, safety, night-time quiet and parking must be handled first and foremost for us – the people who live here. We want streets that are passable and accessible for everyone – for pedestrians, for prams, and for people with limited mobility.

Pillar 2 ↓ Pillar number 3 Decisions of citizens must be respected

Nobody asks us, the residents of Prague 1, for our opinion. Politicians all too often decide with no regard for what residents think and need. The town hall must listen to its citizens and let them take part in decisions about our district. We will change that! Citizens’ assemblies will take place regularly, open to every one of you. The town hall will no longer hide from its residents. We will deal with your suggestions instead of ignoring them!

Pillar 3 ↓

How it works

Few people know this: a Prague district cannot issue its own by-laws – the important powers sit with the City of Prague and the state (Act No. 131/2000 Coll. and the Statute of the City of Prague). That is why every measure honestly says who actually decides it today:
  • DISTRICT the district can do it on its own
  • DISTRICT+CITY requires cooperation with the City of Prague
  • PARLIAMENT requires a change of national law

What Prague 1 can do on its own, we start doing immediately. What the City or the state controls, we will negotiate publicly, push through, and say out loud where it is stuck. Our goal is pressure to enforce existing law – and a change of the Act on the City of Prague, so Prague 1 can decide about itself, together with its citizens. That is what we call neighbourhood politics: a district is made by the neighbours who live in it.

We know it can be done – it only takes the will to do it.

The three pillars in detail

Pillar by pillar

Pillar 1 – Prague 1 is losing its housing stock

Return flats to housing!

Many flats in Prague 1 serve short-term accommodation, not housing. We want to return them to permanent homes.

Why is it a problem?
  • Airbnb and similar platforms list 13,000 short-term rentals in central Prague (source: IPR, 3/2023). Thousands of flats in Prague 1 today serve short-term accommodation instead of housing. That pushes out permanent residents and turns the centre into one big hostel. In 2022, short-term accommodation bothered 62% of residents, who wanted it limited in some way – and 27% of them wanted it banned outright (source: PAQ Research). The referendum held last year alongside the parliamentary elections showed that opinion has shifted further: 72.26% voted to restrict short-term accommodation (see the official referendum results).
  • The district owns 1,200 flats. About 120 of them stand empty, and in roughly 300 the tenants run short-term rentals (the authority’s estimate). That has to change: rent out the empty flats, and give notice to tenants who run illegal short-term lets.
  • As permanent residents disappear, everyday amenities disappear with them. Where bakeries and ordinary shops and services used to be, there are now souvenir shops – which bother 76% of residents – and alcohol shops, which bother 65% (source: PAQ Research). That needs to change step by step, starting in the buildings owned by Prague 1 and the City.
Map · Inside Airbnb data See where those flats in Prague 1 are → (page in Czech)
What we have already done
  1. A citizens’ assembly – We recently organised the first-ever citizens’ assembly, “Deciding together about Prague 1”, open to any resident of Prague 1. From the applicants we drew 100 participants by lot. Together we talked about the problems of Prague 1 and chose the one to tackle first: the participants picked short-term accommodation. We examined the problem properly, heard the experts, debated it, and passed a resolution. The assembly named it the most pressing problem of Prague 1 – short-term accommodation really does bother us.
  2. A petition – The assembly also approved the petition “Return flats to permanent housing!”, which asks the Prague 1 district, the City of Prague, the Ministry of Regional Development and Parliament to act within their powers. Our goal is 12,000 signatures, so that the Parliament of the Czech Republic has to deal with it. You can sign too – online (requires a Czech digital identity) or at our street stall. Or phone us and we will come to you.
  3. Door hangers – As prevention, we printed door hangers that ask short-term guests to keep the peace and the place tidy. We provide them to anyone who needs them. Prevention matters too.
What the town hall can do right now
  • Inspect short-term rental operations and shut them down where they break the law.
  • Give notice to tenants who run short-term rentals in district-owned flats.
  • Offer the empty flats for rent.
  • Give legal support to homeowner associations fighting short-term rentals.
  • Re-designate non-residential spaces back into flats.
What the City of Prague can do
  • Give notice to tenants who run short-term rentals in city-owned flats.
  • The City has the right of legislative initiative – it can propose a change in the law and lobby for it.
What the Parliament of the Czech Republic can do
  • Pass a law regulating short-term accommodation.
  • Amend the Act on the City of Prague so Prague 1 can issue its own by-laws to regulate short-term accommodation.

Pillar 2

A resident of Prague 1 matters more than a visitor!

Noise, mess, disappearing services, clogged streets, nowhere to park – that is the daily reality we face. Visitors seem to come first in everything: they stay short-term next door, shops spring up for them, parking is freed up for them, and when they break the rules nothing happens. Yet the residents of Prague 1 should come first in Prague 1. They do not – and that has to change!

Why is it a problem?

A representative survey of Prague 1 residents (source: PAQ Research), compared with the rest of Prague, shows that people here miss ordinary, affordable places – cafés, restaurants, pubs and grocery shops. The survey also lists what bothers residents:

  • 86% traffic jams
  • 85% sale of shoddy or counterfeit goods
  • 81% the number of non-residents’ parked cars
  • 78% lack of parking spaces
  • 76% souvenir shops
  • 73% through-traffic crossing Prague 1
  • 71% alcohol tourism
  • 65% alcohol shops
  • 65% of Prague 1 residents are convinced that car traffic is not designed in their favour / are unhappy with the state of traffic in Prague 1
  • 48% of residents are disturbed at night by drunks – the most common complaint of all

What unites the residents of Prague 1 is opposition to through-traffic and non-resident parking, noise, mess, disappearing services and clogged streets. Only 14% are satisfied with their chances of parking! The profits from tourism go mostly to the City and the state – Prague 1, which decides almost nothing, is left with the negative impacts. The residents of Prague 1 simply draw the short straw. Money from tourism must come back to Prague 1 – into repairs and the care of public space.

What we have already done

The participants of the citizens’ assembly put excessive tourism and traffic among their six priorities, and our petition targets one of the causes – short-term accommodation. The Sustainable Development Strategy, co-authored by members of our slate, is unfortunately on ice. A total of 2,573 Prague 1 residents and experts – among them Václav Cílek, Jan Kasl, Daniel Prokop, Ivan Rynda and Milan Brlík – took part in drafting it. The council approved the Strategy’s proposal part, but keeps delaying its implementation, and the leadership of the town hall refused to prepare the action plan that would bring it to life.

We will inspect more often and enforce the rules strictly.

What the town hall can do right now
  • Prepare the Action Plan of the Sustainable Development Strategy and start delivering it.
  • Carry out regular inspections so that a quiet night becomes the norm for most residents.
  • Limit shops like cannabis outlets and offer the space to a bakery or other everyday amenities instead.
What the City of Prague can do – and what we will negotiate with your help:
  • limits on non-resident parking,
  • regulation of through-traffic in the centre,
  • sustainable tourism that respects the people who live here.

Pillar 3

Nobody asks the residents of Prague 1 for their opinion

Politicians all too often decide about Prague 1 with no regard for what its residents think and need. That is not right!

Why is it a problem?

Deep distrust of Prague 1 politicians is the second most frequent problem people raise when we meet them. The most visible causes: a string of scandals from which politicians drew no personal consequences – and yet they have the audacity to run again and again as if nothing had happened – and promises that were never kept. Public debate about Prague 1 now happens mostly in Facebook groups, and sadly it usually ends in a quarrel, not a solution.

Residents turn to the authority with requests and pleas about often very serious problems that the town hall is competent to solve, or at least to help with. Too often it does not care and leaves its own citizens in the lurch: sort it out yourselves. The evidence is all around us.

What we have already done

We recently organised the first-ever citizens’ assembly, open to any resident of Prague 1 – and we paid for it out of our own pockets. From the applicants we drew 100 participants by lot. We got to know each other, discussed, and listened. Most participants gave the meetings almost 30 hours of their time, unpaid. We agreed on six priorities that should be addressed. The participants were happy with how the assembly worked – their own words say so. We want an assembly like this to repeat twice a year, so that everyone who wants a say in our district gets the chance.

More about the citizens’ assembly ↗ opens the assembly website

Our goal is a helpful and transparent town hall.

What the town hall can do right now
  • share decisions – a citizens’ assembly every six months, a participatory budget of at least 1% of the district budget, regular surveys and public meetings
  • be helpful – a town hall that asks “How can we help you?”, not “What do you want now?”
  • be transparent – we will decide openly, without hidden agendas, and we will keep you informed about our decisions.

What it means for you

  • a healthy-ageing programme and a Seniors’ Council – the voice of older residents must be heard when the town hall decides
  • free legal help (tenancies, homeowner associations, scams) and accompaniment to the doctor and the authorities
  • recuperation stays funded from tourism revenue – we will negotiate for part of the accommodation fee to visibly come back to the people of Prague 1 DISTRICT+CITY

  • accompaniment to the doctor and the authorities
  • a single point of contact for life situations (housing, care, noise)
  • a tradesperson can park on a pre-registered number plate without trouble

  • “Two hours for parents” – affordable evening childcare; SOS childcare in a crisis; help for families in difficulty DISTRICT
  • a family discount card; shaded playgrounds with water and regular maintenance
  • good schools and nurseries with psychologists, speech therapists and assistants; a safe route to school

  • starter flats and shared housing
  • places for leisure, free school and sports grounds
  • hubs, community spaces, support for young entrepreneurs; a participatory budget for the young
  • mental health and psychological support

  • legal, informational and coordination support for homeowner associations limiting short-term rentals DISTRICT
  • a dedicated coordinator for homeowner associations
  • a “Quiet Night” programme: prevention, inspections, a noise hotline, and noise maps tied to each operation DISTRICT+CITY

  • a “Local Business of Prague 1” scheme – benefits for those who are based here, pay taxes here, respect the rules and serve the residents DISTRICT
  • a healthy environment: the same rules for everyone, an end to murky advantages and disadvantageous contracts; the town hall as a partner DISTRICT
  • pressure to limit unsuitable retail – meaning the operations that demonstrably burden their surroundings, not honest business; the criteria will be public

  • “A foreigner is one of us.” – actively involving foreign-language neighbours in the life of the district and its communities DISTRICT
  • Did you know you can vote? EU citizens living in Prague 1 can vote in the municipal elections on 9–10 October 2026 – you just have to register in time. Step-by-step guide →

Flats for neighbours. A town hall for everyone. Streets for locals.

Rozhodujme společně. (Let’s decide together.)

The programme is not finished. We will keep shaping it with you – with residents and with citizens’ assemblies.

Sign the petition → info@rozhodujmespolecne.cz
Where the numbers come from

Data sources

PAQ Research / NMS 2024
A quantitative survey of Prague 1 residents, PAQ Research / NMS, N = 759 (most figures are “bothered by X%”).
Downloads
Sustainable Development Strategy
Prague 1 district: analytical part (2024) and proposal part; approved by the council in March 2025. 2,573 residents took part in drafting it.
Downloads
IPR Prague
The Prague Institute of Planning and Development – ~8,000 Airbnb listings in Prague 1 (3/2023).
Downloads
Regulation abroad
Barcelona: −93% illegal listings (city data). New York: −80% listings after Local Law 18 (2023). Ghent: a circulation traffic plan.
Downloads
Czech Statistical Office
Registered residents of Prague 1 (~30 thousand permanent residents).
Downloads
Citizens’ Assembly 2025–26
Sortition 28 Nov 2025 (189 → 100 + 2) · meetings 11 Mar (76) · 10–11 Apr (67) · 12 + 20 May (54) · resolution and petition.
Downloads