19 “Reconstruction” Senators Elected to Upper House

Today’s elections brought into the Senate a total of 19 supporters of the Reconstruction of the State bills. Seventeen of them will take their Senate seats for the first time. Another two Senators, who had supported the project in the past, have also regained seats. In total, 30 Senators now officially support at least some of the anti-corruption and anti-clientelist measures recommended by the Reconstruction of the State platform.

Scores of citizens have met with Senate candidates in the past few weeks to find out if they support the Reconstruction of the State project. Senatorial support is essential mainly for the amendment that extends the scope of powers of the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ). As this requires a change of the Constitution, the Chamber of Deputies could not outvote potential Senate veto. At the same time, the change was passed by the former as well as the incumbent lower house. However, the current Senate again took a negative stance on the motion. Their approach puts at stake an estimated one trillion crowns that pass every year through municipal and state enterprises and self-governing bodies without being subjected to (the possibility of) independent audit.

Counted towards the above numbers are also the Senators who gave their backing only to extending the powers of the NKÚ. However, many of them have willingly upheld other bills as well. Details are available on www.rekonstrukcestatu.cz/senat2014.

“These elections have shown that there is no let-up in the citizens’ wish to communicate with their candidates. The same goes for the candidates’ preparedness to have a say on the reconstruction bills. Although they come from various political parties, they agree to the need to take the proposed measures. Importantly, we also have support from several candidates with a personal experience with fighting the abuse of public funds,” explains Nikola Hořejš from Reconstruction of the State.

Before the first round of Senate elections, 120 candidates out of 253 across the party spectrum and election districts joined our initiative. 29 of these supporters made their way into the group of 54 candidates who advanced to the run-off. Before the second round, another six candidates attached their signatures to the pledge. In 10 election districts, both run-off candidates supported the project; while only two election districts remained with no candidates pledging their support to Reconstruction of the State. In addition to the 19 newly elected Senators, another two candidates expressed sympathy for the project. However, in some cases time constraints had prevented them from signing in. The possibility to join the project and publicly express support to the anti-corruption bills remains open even after the elections.

Reconstruction of the State will stay in touch with Senators after the elections. Similarly to the Chamber of Deputies, it will continue to brief lawmakers and monitor how they vote on reconstruction bills, and publish the results on its website. In this way, citizens will receive virtually real-time updates on how the newly elected Senators keep their promises.

Media contact
Nikola Hořejš
+420 775 270 214
nikola.horejs@frankbold.org

List of newly elected Senators supporting Reconstruction of the State:

Zdeňka Hamousová	ANO 2011	No. 6 – Louny
Karel Kratochvíle	ČSSD	No. 12 – Strakonice
Václav Láska	KDU-ČSL/SZ	No. 21 – Prague 5
Zuzana Baudyšová	ANO 2011	No. 24 – Prague 9
Václav Hampl	KDU-ČSL/SZ	No. 27 – Prague 1
Jiří Dienstbier	ČSSD	No. 30 – Kladno
Jiří Vosecký	SLK	No. 36 - Česká Lípa
Jiří Hlavatý	ANO 2011	No. 39 – Trutnov
Emílie Třísková	ČSSD	No. 42 – Kolín
Jaroslav Malý	ČSSD	No. 45 – Hradec Králové
Miroslav Antl	ČSSD	No. 48 – Rychnov nad Kněžnou
Pavel Štohl	ČSSD	No. 54 – Znojmo
Zdeněk Papoušek	KDU-ČSL	No. 60 - Brno-City
Jitka Seitlová	KDU-ČSL/SZ	No. 63 – Přerov
Alena Šromová	KDU-ČSL	No. 66 - Olomouc
Jiří Carbol	KDU-ČSL	No. 69 – Frýdek-Místek
Peter Koliba	ANO 2011	No. 72 – Ostrava-City
Radek Sušil	ČSSD	No. 75 – Karviná
František Čuba	SPO	No. 78 – Zlín