“What can one stupid populist do!” How the deputies did not give a subsidy for Prague Pride
Councilor Třeštíková published ballot papers from Thursday’s council meeting via a Twitter account. The incriminated point was voted on after midnight and, as expected, the votes of ODS representatives (only the expressor Bohuslav Svoboda was in favor) and YES were missing for approval, but some representatives from the TOP 09 and STAN ranks did not vote at all. Jan Wolf (KDU-ČSL), who is also part of the coalition United Forces for Prague, was the only one against.
Sad business card, Třeštíková is angry
“It is a sad business card of these parties,” the petitioner stated in the article, where she banned the reactions of the public. Only the organizers of Prague Pride answer it: “And yet, of course, we regret the decision, this year we will try hard to bring the festival as close as possible to the usual form, taking into account the current situation. The festival will take place from 2 to 8 August 2021. “
According to the web Prague newspaper Representative Martin Benda (Prague himself) spoke in the same hall on the night from Thursday to Friday, stating that his vote “for” was not counted. After about a quarter of an hour of confusion, Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) tried to use the Rules of Procedure to repeat the vote – and the original vote was set as confusing. But some deputies rejected the proposal.
The Conservative Newspaper’s Facebook page, with a great deal of gratitude, claims that money for Prague helped stop Wolf’s former councilor for culture by splitting the vote on tourism grants. Therefore, according to a contribution by the municipal corridors on Friday morning, they may have said: “What can one stupid populist do!”
Tomáš Štampach, who was elected to the council as Svobodné and is known to the ODS club, was warned before the meeting that the event to support sexual minorities was originally part of a package of projects whose organizers were to share approximately 16 million crowns. “I think the amount is too high, that the festival has no power in August to visit tens of thousands of visitors, and therefore this financial support makes no sense. And this is how I can go project after project, “wrote Štampach, adding that Prague Pýcha chose without any prejudice as an example based on society as a whole.
Prague as a destination for LGBT + tourists
Wolf’s “obstruction” thus caused the money to be given, for example, by the Midsummer Society for the Navalis event, and the municipality would also support the reconstruction of the Battle of White Mountain. Roughly fourteen million will also be shared by the organizers of the medical, agricultural, chemical and automotive congresses.
Due to the situation with the covid-19 infectious virus, Prague lost foreign tourists. Last year, the municipality released 121 million crowns from the budget to support tourism, and included a campaign called “In Prague as at home”, which was to attract domestic visitors.
Now they do not agree politically on whether a “Central European queer culture week” with a planned culmination in the form of a “pride” parade would have a similar positive benefit. “The festival contributes to the popularization of Prague as a destination for LGBT + tourists. According to the survey, participants stay in metropolises for four to five days. Spending for services and accommodation in Prague is in the order of tens of millions of crowns, “says the application for a subsidy for the Třeštíková proposal, stating that in the event of the coronavirus measures being relaxed, the organizers expect up to 50,000 guests.
The City Councilor, who is in charge of culture and tourism, therefore proposes to propose a contribution for Prague Pride 2021 again at the April meeting of the City Council.