Stropnický’s ultimatum. He will not be a councilor when Prague raises real estate taxes and buys the Clinic
The three parties of the disintegrated Prague coalition – YES, the CSSD and the Troika Coalition – one on Friday morning, under what conditions they will renew their coalition. Both the CSSD and YES insist that the head of the Green Party, Matěj Stropnický, will not be on the council. He is willing to back down if the city buys the Žižkov clinic and increases property taxes, which should finance social housing. And negotiators for YES Jaroslav Faltýnek and CSSD Karel Březina have already stated that his demands are realistic. According to them, the final agreement could be next week.
Prague – The chairman of the Green Party, Matěj Stropnický, started a high game: He is willing to unblock the stalemate in the composition of the Prague coalition and to back down from the requirement to be on the city council. But it imposes several conditions. He wants the city to buy Žižkov The clinic and raised real estate taxes.
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“The three-party coalition came to the negotiations with a request to increase the real estate tax by one point,” said Jaroslav Faltýnek from ANO after the meeting. He also confirmed that the Trojkoalice wants the Clinic to be used for the non-profit sector and that the reconstruction of the Žižkov freight station into a cultural and educational center should begin.
“I believe that this coalition will be confirmed at the council at the latest,” Faltýnek concluded.
He was similarly positive as a representative for the Social Democrats Karel Březina, who indicated that he would join the program body of the Troika Coalition, or Matěj Stropnický, respectively. “We see a significant shift in renewing the coalition in the coming days,” Březina said.
Ondřej Mirovský, who is green in the Trojkoalice, said after the negotiations that this was a proposal of the Trojkoalice on how to unblock the stalemate in the municipality. “And the responses are very positive,” Mirovsky said.
Matěj Stropnický himself does not want to comment on the program points or the negotiations. “I won’t talk about it until next week,” said Stropnický, who speaks to him as a possible chairman of an important transport committee. He could receive the contribution in exchange for a seat on the board.
At Friday’s press conference, Jakub Ort from the Clinic said that the team appreciates Stropnický’s initiative for buying the town hall building, but at the same time provides that the chairman of the Green Party is acting on his own. “It’s not our initiative, there’s nothing wrong with Matthew, it’s nothing for him,“Ort said.
The tax will be raised by a tenth
Real estate taxes determines according to the size of the municipality, however, they can simultaneously raise or lower the law according to a specified coefficient. For Prague applies the highest band, 4.5 times the base. However, it can increase up to five times. For Praguers, this would mean an increase of about ten percent.
In the case of a 100-meter flat, the current approximately 1,200 crowns per year would have been paid by Praguers approximately 1,330 crowns per year. According to Stropnický, additional housing should be used to finance social housing. So far, Stropnický himself refuses to comment.
Every year, the city collects 800 million crowns in property taxes, the vast majority of which are real estate taxes. The increase could bring about 80 million.