EXPLAINED: Who runs Prague, really? What the mayor actually does – and why it matters

Due to Prague’s special status, the invisible wheels turning and strings pulling the city many of us call home can seem obscure and complex. Yet, understanding how things work helps the day-to-day make more sense.

In this week’s explainer, we look at how the city of Prague works, who takes care of what, and why everyone has a stake in who’s in charge.

First things first, Prague – like many other capitals in Europe – has a special and rather complex status in the Czech territorial order.

It’s in the unique position of being all at the same time a municipality, a city and a region – and, ultimately, neither of those things.

To be even more precise, Prague is a so-called statutory city, a term referring to larger cities whose territory can be divided into smaller districts.

There are about two dozen of them in Czechia, with Prague being the larger one with 22 administrative districts (Prague 1 all the way to Prague 22), themselves subdivided into no less than 57 self-governing municipal districts.

The Czech Republic has over 6,000 municipalities, 600 cities and 14 regions. Due to Prague’s special status, however, regional elections are only held in all 13 other regions. The “region of Prague” doesn’t have a governor or a regional council, and elections there are held as municipal elections, not regional ones.

So who actually runs the happy institutional mess that is Prague? Let’s break it down.

From transport to education or healthcare, anything happening in Prague is handled by one of three actors (and the organizations that fall under each of their competence): the city itself, local Prague districts or the Czech national government.

Knowing who does what can help residents navigate daily life, overcome practical obstacles and clear bureaucratic hurdles.

For the national government, that’s pretty intuitive: state actors are in charge of the country’s most fundamental and long-term policies, some of which can have an impact at the local level, including immigration laws, fiscal policy or the health insurance system for example.

Individual Prague districts, meanwhile, also have a set list of competences. They manage and operate preschools and primary schools, decide on parking zones, can regulate the opening hours of terraces and outdoor seating areas, and take care of playgrounds and local green spaces (except for the city’s largest parks, like Stromovka or Letná).

Finally, bigger responsibilities fall on the Prague City Hall, in charge of larger-scale projects like managing 2,500 km of roads throughout the city and coordinating roadworks, setting up housing as well as urban development rules, approving public transport fares, taking care of street and public lights throughout the city, and handling waste management.

It’s easy to treat local policies and mayoral elections as a lesser brand of politics while assuming real power lies with the president, government or parliament.

Yet, and that can be particularly true for foreigners, the mayor and city councils shape daily life far more directly than national politics. These are the people, organizations and funds that control and operate the systems people use every day.

And municipal elections in Prague and all around the country are just a few months away, taking place on October 9-10.

Although many people tend to forget it, any EU citizen can vote and even stand as a candidate in Czechia’s municipal elections and Prague’s mayoral race this October.

The process to register is free and relatively straightforward, and we’ll soon be publishing a step-by-step guide on how to jump through the hoops.

Voting day is just one of many ways for people to get involved in their local community and civic life. So even for non-EU citizens, there are many other options, activities and initiatives to make their voices heard and shape public debate in an election outcome bound to have a direct impact on how they live.