We have to debate whether to go to Prague again with STAN. The mushroom appropriated our successes, says Pospíšil
The Together coalition could be repeated in the upcoming municipal elections, which will decide on the new composition of the Prague leadership. Prague chairman TOP 09 and MEP Jiří Pospíšil claim that it is time to debate whether to go to the elections again with the STAN movement. According to him, they programmatically coincide with the left-wing Pirates and the activist policy of Prague, Jan Čižinský. In an interview with Echo24, Pospíšil also criticizes the traffic situation in the capital, which worries a significant part of Prague residents.
Why didn’t you run for the TOP 09 leadership last week, even though you had a nomination?
I’m not going to run I decided for one reason. As the Prague chairman of the drum responsible for the municipal elections here in Prague and I want to focus all my energy together with the exercise of the European mandate on this. I will not deny that part of my decision is the offer of the President, who offered me to devote myself to Prague and have its people in a close central leadership. She offered me that if we agreed in this way, she would stand firmly behind us and support our Prague project. I thanked the President for this and withdrew my candidacy. Despite the fact that I felt great support and I am convinced that if I ran, I would succeed.
Do you not rule out returning to a senior position in the future?
I have my personal, work and other plans and I really don’t know what will happen. It is important for me that TOP 09 succeeds in the elections in Prague, I take it as my project. It is good that we are able to reach an agreement in the party. TOP 09 is a relatively small party and if we are tight and united, it increases our strength.
How are the negotiations on a possible coalition in the municipal elections in the same format as in the Together coalition? So ODS, TOP 09 and KDU-ČSL?
Negotiations have not yet begun. I hope we will, but we will. So far, there are only my statements that I would like us to try the Together for Prague project. But I don’t want to anticipate whether the project will succeed. In the Prague TOP 09, there are different opinions on the coalition and we will have a debate about which direction to go. We are at the beginning and the debate is yet to come.
During the negotiations on the compilation of the Together candidates, tensions arose in the Prague ODS due to the leader, who became the chairwoman of TOP 09 Markéta Pekarová Adamová. Will it not endanger the coalition’s negotiations in the municipal elections?
I say quite openly that relations are better today than I would expect. Yes, at the beginning it was not easy for some ODS members to accept the fact that the candidate will be headed by a representative of TOP 09. I think that the result also showed the correctness of the decision. In the election campaign or after the election, I did not notice that anyone from the ODS questioned this choice. It is logical that every cooperation arises in labor pains. However, the President also helped to address some of the more liberal voters, and I think that was the right decision.
In the current election period, however, you met with ODS representatives and discussed possible cooperation.
I have been saying for a long time that I would like to work with the ODS at the moment, because we would work much better than the current coalition. Unfortunately, there was no third partner. I promised voters that we would not rule the municipality with the YES movement. At a time when the Pirates and Mr Chizhinsky movement (Prague To himself, club chairman, note. ed.) refused to cooperate with the ODS, so the current coalition was the only option. Being a right-wing party and left-wing partners, it was clear from the outset that cooperation would be squeaking.
Is there not even a variant of tacit support for the YES movement in the case of a coalition of the United Forces for Prague and the ODS?
I would take it as a voter scam. It would be the same as Prime Minister Andrej Babiš claiming that he did not cooperate with the Communists, even though they supported his government. I do not believe in tacit support, because this is de facto cooperation. Although the right-wing coalition, albeit a minority, could function effectively. But politics is about symbols, and we promised something. So we’ll stick to it.
If politics is about symbols, will not the people of Prague have your name in the election as a symbol of the failures of the current leadership? TOP 09 does take part in the management of Prague.
Of course they can. But perhaps everyone also knows that I am critical of this. My opinion is a minority in the coalition. Thanks to the government with TOP 09, there is a government without the YES movement and a government has emerged that is not associated with corruption scandals. Yes, in some areas the success rate is simply lower. When Mr Scheinherr (Prague To himself, councilor for transport, note. ed.) you perform the functions of a councilor and together with our votes, so you should feel that we have a different opinion on some things. I am sorry that the communication between TOP 09 and Mr Scheinherr is limited and the effort to compromise is minimal.
On the other hand, there are a number of activist ideas that thanks to TOP 09, they did not pass in the end. For example, rising parking fees, closing the center or introducing tolls. These are extra things that are a problem for us.
But the fare went up.
It passed. But you know we were strongly against it. The proposal was unconceptually prepared. If we look at how much the fare cost, it made some sense. Still, I’m glad that a lot of other ideas have been stopped or stopped.
Some councilors are criticized, especially Deputy Mayor Adam Scheinherr, who runs the traffic. Didn’t you discuss with Zdeněk Hřib possible changes in senior positions?
I am already an ordinary representative. When I recommended this to the mayor as chairman of the club, this debate was rejected. I don’t want to be the one to dig up coalition partners. Everyone has to evaluate whether their councilor is enough for the work they do. I think everyone sees how Prague transport works. There, I think that the Prague Initiative initiative could consider change. But it is their political responsibility. Mr Čižinský cannot claim that Mr Scheinherr is not one of them and that they are not responsible for transport in Prague.
There used to be a lot of local steps to reduce traffic on the Smetana embankment, where there were cafes and restaurants on the road. Now the road is passable again. Why such a turnaround?
Before leaving my position as chairman of the club, I had a great conflict with Mr. Scheinherr and Mr. Hlaváček, when the project to close the waterfront was approved. In principle, the project was to lead to a significant reduction in the passability of the center. I considered this to be a big problem and I consider the possible support of a certain restriction of the passage of the center for non-Praguers. I can still hear from professional teams that most European capitals have limited access to the center. But I live in Brussels for two to three weeks, when I park right in the center and I can also go to exhibitions in Vienna and in the city center. My experience is therefore different.
I have a feeling that some authors are missing the real life of an ordinary Praguer. They live in the tables that the car is used only by the upper middle class. In the center, you will usually meet several Škoda cars and pick-ups, where plumbers drive for their trade. If there is a gradual reduction in internal combustion engines in Europe, why would I ban cars from the city center in the future? To claim that the car does not belong to the center and the roads are for pedestrians is a denial of common sense. After all, roads were created for horse-drawn carriages and later for cars.
So what about the toll issue, which has been addressed this year as well?
Our colleague Hlubuček (STAN, Deputy Mayor, note ed.) and it’s something I don’t agree with. This is also the reason why we need to debate another possible electoral coalition. On the one hand, it worked humanly with STAN, on the other hand, I openly say that the program of the STAN movement in Prague is much closer to the Pirates or Čižinský. Even our voter in the research we did is more right-wing than activist. The example of the toll is proof of that. In my opinion, this is just another tax that will make life in Prague more expensive due to a certain use of the form of transport.
Recently, the mayor boasted of the introduction of cooperative housing. What do you say to this step?
That amused me. A significant member of TOP 09, Ivana Todlová, came up with a project for the construction of cooperative housing in Prague 13 for several years. Instead of accepting and modifying this offer, the Pirates rejected it. Now, before the elections, they are triumphantly coming up with a cooperative housing project. I have a feeling that the Pirates haven’t done much in their work in three years, and now they’re starting to catch topics and give the impression that they’re working. The result of the parliamentary elections logically frightened them. It is also a business card of how Praguers perceive the government of the Pirates in Prague and the results of the work of Mayor Hřiby.
So do you feel robbed?
When I was still the chairman of the club, it was very difficult for the mayor to present the work of other councilors with great popularity on his social networks. I have seen this very often, especially in relation to Mr Chabr (TOP 09, councilor for property management, note. ed.) or Hlubuček, which I must say, he took a lot of good steps in his area. So we had a coalition debate, where there is a certain amount of time when the mayor did not work on the matter and is not responsible for it. And that debate took place very often.
Now I can’t answer that because I’m not in charge of the municipality. But it was his favorite practice. But it is complicated because the mayor is perceived by the citizens as the de facto head of the city. In reality, the mayor is primus inter pares, ie the first among equals. It therefore has no wider powers than the others. It is a question of where the mayor’s moral right is to appropriate his achievements.