<p>Ježek proposed a temporary solution - to complete the repository in Hostivař</p>

Publisher
ČTK
16.06.2008 00:25
Czech Republic

Prague

Prague - The head of the National Library (NK), Vlastimil Ježek, proposed to the Ministry of Culture last week to address the looming shortage of storage space for NK's collections by completing the Hostivař depository. In the České televize program Questions of Václav Moravec today, he reminded that this would be an emergency solution, as the spaces in Klementinum are becoming insufficient and the construction of a new building is not in sight.
    "We just don't want to get to a situation where we would have to limit the operations of the National Library, or even completely close it," he stated.
    If NK receives approval for the emergency variant in Hostivař, Ježek said that the completion of the local depository should be finished by early 2011. This would give NK an additional eight years, during which a new building should be constructed. Ježek has previously stated that the Hostivař option is expensive, unenvironmental, and not considerate of the book collection, as books would still have to be transported to Klementinum.
    Today on CT, Ježek again clashed with Pavel Bém (ODS). The Prague mayor declared that the project for the new NK building, designed by Jan Kaplický, has become a "political farce." Ježek, a supporter of constructing Kaplický's "octopus" in Letná, considers it more of a farce how Bém argued today on CT.
    Disputes over the new National Library have been dragging on for over a year. They concern land, financing, and the legitimacy of the competition from which Kaplický's proposal emerged. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek (ODS) and Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička (KDU-ČSL) stated that there is no money for construction.
    The construction of the new National Library building is also increasingly becoming a topic of election campaigning. Ježek, who has decided to run for the KDU-ČSL in the Senate, is now trying to seek support for the construction across the political spectrum. "What to do when others have politicized it. Ultimately, politicians will decide about the construction," he stated in recent days. According to him, the ODS is the one who politicized the issue. Prague councilors from this party opposed the construction last autumn, prior to which President Václav Klaus also expressed negative opinions about Kaplický's proposal, and Bém is currently critical of the project as well. The head of the Christian Democrats, Jiří Čunek, and the chairman of the ČSSD, Jiří Paroubek, on the other hand, promised support for the controversial proposal.
    According to Ježek, a barrier to the project assignment is that NK does not have a signed contract for the sale of the land. At the beginning of May, he urged Bém in a letter to sell the land to the library. The mayor stated today that he received the letter, but did not respond. He reportedly cannot agree to the release of the land in a situation where it is unclear whether Kaplický's blob will be built, and when the necessary funds are not secured. "If I have no money, I cannot build," he said on CT. Ježek added that he sent a similar letter to the Prague councilors on Friday, and if that does not help, he will send it to all councilors.
    "From the library, from the blob, it simply became a political ... farce, and at this moment I dare say that it means the end of this project," declared the mayor. According to him, the ODS and the entire Prague have had nothing to do with it from the beginning, and the capital is in the position of a "subaltern official." The Civic Democrats, according to Bém, want NK to have a new building, but they propose more environmentally friendly alternatives.
The English translation is powered by AI tool. Switch to Czech to view the original text source.
0 comments
add comment

Related articles