Zaorálek: the government district is poorly thought out, money is needed elsewhere

Prague - Instead of building a government district, Minister of Culture Lubomír Zaorálek (ČSSD) would like to open the office he manages to the public. According to him, the idea of a government district, proposed by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO), is unthoughtful and it is not true that it would be advantageous for the state. According to Zaorálek, the state needs money elsewhere now. In an interview with ČTK, he expressed his concerns about the way the prime minister "negotiates" with Prague and does not see a way to fill the often monumentally protected buildings abandoned by officials.

"It's something that has started to anger me. At a time when there is a lack of money in regions, for example in the area of cultural infrastructure, but I also think that there is an imbalance in the field of healthcare and elsewhere, I don’t understand why we should build apartment blocks in the fields for officials' offices," said the Minister of Culture to ČTK. According to him, it is strategically wrong to talk about a government district now when housing is much more needed than offices for officials.

"These are huge billions. And when the prime minister argues to me that it will be financed by the sale of buildings, I looked and saw that building sales would yield 7.5 billion, which is ridiculously low compared to what the costs for building a government district for thousands of officials would be," he calculated.

The government wants to build a complex in Letňany, where it would relocate up to 10,000 state officials currently scattered across several buildings. In exchange for its land, Prague wants the state to complete the outer road ring, contribute to the internal ring, and build a new hospital. However, negotiations between Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) and Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) ended last week without result.

The Minister of Culture also criticizes the way the prime minister negotiates with the Prague mayor about the district "in front of the public." "It seems to me like a scene from (Ladislav Stroupežnický's) Our Furiants: I will give this, you will give a hundred billion... The whole way of debating is unacceptable," Zaorálek said.

He believes the idea of a government district on the outskirts of Prague does not correspond to the concept of Prague's development. He also sees no clear way in which the agreement would be formally secured. "I only remember a similar agreement from recent times with the churches that the state made. I criticized it back then; it was problematic for me, and I hoped the Constitutional Court would not allow it. Even now, it would have to be law. I cannot imagine that they are serious about this," he says.

He reminds that government districts elsewhere in Europe become dead cities after working hours and on weekends. "I know what the Černín Palace meant for me in terms of receiving guests; the psychological impact of the possibility of receiving visitors from around the world at this place was enormous," he highlighted the genius loci of the place near Prague Castle, which he believes also helped in subsequent negotiations and which, according to him, cannot be matched by living in the government district.

The objection that some palaces would be sold and in others museums and galleries would be established is, according to him, illusory. "We have a problem filling the content of what we have. The idea that we will just fill it up is nonsense. That again costs money that no one wants to allocate to culture, so who will pay for it?" he asks.

He moved from his former position in the Černín Palace a few weeks ago with his new government function to the Nostický Palace in Malá Strana. The Ministry of Culture has been based there for 15 years after a reconstruction costing several hundred million crowns. Zaorálek would like to open it to the public and remove the bars from the gate, which ministers alternately open and close. "It's pathetic; in the world, such types of institutions are normally accessible to the public, there should be a restaurant and café in the courtyard. Now it looks like a prison with the bars," he said.