Since its inception, Via Foundation’s program “Taking the Fear Out of Local Politics” has provided knowledge, peer connections and mentoring to people who are preparing to run for local office. This year, in relation to the upcoming municipal elections in October, the program is pursuing a different strategy. Instead of preparing candidates, it will focus on providing immediate assistance to new mayors and deputy mayors after the October elections. We talked to program manager Ludmila Zájedová about the program’s new direction.
Do you have specific data on how the number of participants in your intensive program has changed in recent years?
Yes, it’s clear that interest in the program is steadily increasing, along with the number of program participants. We have now had three cohorts and each time we’ve had more participants. In 2023–2024, it was 20 people; in 2024–2025, the number of participants doubled to 40; and in 2025–2026, we increased capacity to 50 people. Our assumption that interest in politics would rise significantly as the fall municipal elections approach has been confirmed. We increased the number of spots in the courses accordingly. This year, we also have a lot of younger participants.
Based on your experience, what draws young people to politics?
All of our applicants are already active in their communities. They see how things work in their town and feel that there is room for improvement. If we look at their motivations in more detail and include wider age group of people under 40, we see two distinct approaches.
For young women, practical experience from everyday life in their town plays a huge role. As long as a young person just goes to work, comes home from work, and spends their free time in the town, they don’t have to deal with many issues. They tend to satisfy their needs for services, shopping, culture, or sports in larger cities and live in the town because it’s beautiful there or because they grew up there. The turning point comes when women start a family and begin spending entire days in the village with their children. Suddenly, they see with their own eyes what’s missing and what could work better. They get involved in community life, start organizing things on their own, and run into a wall of resistance. People tell them: “That won’t work; we’ve never done it that way here.” They realize that as active residents, they face limitations, and they decide to enter politics not out of a desire for office, but because they feel the need to improve the place where they live. They see that the community is often run by an older generation whose children no longer attend local schools or preschools and who do not take the needs of young families into account.
Among young men, the approach is often a bit different. There, we meet people who have been genuinely interested in and enjoyed politics as a practice since adolescence. We have young men in our program who have been actively attending city council meetings since they were 14. Of course, there are political ambitions involved, but holding office is not the goal for them—it’s a means to actually do something for the place where they live and to offer their skills. Incidentally, in terms of the overall representation of men and women, the most recent cohort was more balanced.
What exactly will the new version of the program look like? We already know that you won’t be preparing people before they enter politics, but will instead support those who win in the fall elections…
Exactly. The target group will no longer be people who are just getting started in politics, but people who will actually be elected this fall and will take up leadership roles in their municipalities for the first time in their lives—meaning new mayors and deputy mayors. For deputy mayors, the requirement is that the position becomes their primary occupation. We want to help those who are diving right in and for whom this will become their main job.
What specific types of support will be offered? Newly elected mayors probably won’t have time to attend training sessions right after the election.
That’s the biggest challenge we’re facing. The needs of newly elected officials vary greatly. In a small town, it’s often a “one-man show,” where the mayor has to know everything and handle everything on his own. In a larger town, they have an administrative staff and a town clerk who can bring them up to speed on many matters. While all these new officials need to know everything at the start, they simply don’t have the time to sit through long seminars.
One of the politicians in a focus group we recently organized described it perfectly: they need a smorgasbord from which they can choose exactly what their municipality needs most and what they’re currently dealing with. They don’t have time to sit through a half-day general lecture on tree felling. They need to be able to call someone for advice: “I’m sitting in my office; a resident has come in wanting to cut down a tree, and I have the stamp in my hand, but I don’t know the exact procedure.” They need immediate advice on a specific situation.
That’s why, with this new cohort, we probably won’t start with a traditional introductory in-person meeting, but will instead offer them quick, specialized support from experts and experienced mentors right from the start. We’ll provide them with a contact person on the phone who can give them an answer within five minutes to whatever issue they’re currently dealing with.
