The investment boom is not happening again. Prague under Hřiba invested only slightly more than under the Krnáč family
During the three and a half years of Hřib’s government, i.e. from 2018 to the first half of this year, the municipality invested a total of 32.9 billion crowns in the development of Prague. This is almost six billion more than the former coalition led by Adriana Krnáčová (ANO), which invested 26.2 billion crowns during the same period. Every year, Hřib’s coalition pulled out twice as much money for investment than it was able to spend in the end. “In this respect, it did no better than the previous Krnáčov coalition,” criticizes opposition representative and mayor of Prague 9 Tomáš Portlík (ODS).
Deputy Minister for Finance Pavel Vyhnánek (Prague sebo) rejects such a comparison. In the budget every year, according to his words, he deliberately allocated more money for investments than was necessary so that it did not fall into current expenses. “This money does not disappear at the end of the year, but is transferred to the following years for the same investment actions. We thereby prevent them from being ‘used up’ for other, less important expenses in a specific budget year,” he said. In addition, the leadership of Prague was struggling with the depression during the pandemic and the arrival of refugees after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
An investment worth tens of billions
In addition, according to Vyhnánek, Krnáčová’s coalition had the advantage of being able to invest money in completed projects. “While in the last election period Prague invested around ten billion kroner in investment projects inherited from previous years, such as the central sewage treatment plant or the Blanka tunnel, we did not inherit a single billion-dollar investment that was started or at least had a building permit,” he pointed out.
According to Vyhnánek, the coalition managed to launch a number of large projects. “We will hand over to the next council ongoing and contracted investment projects in history of a volume that has not been seen in the modern period of the city,” he said. He mentioned the first stage of the construction of metro D, the construction of the Dvorecký bridge, the reconstruction of the Industrial Palace, the Libeň bridge and the old line of the wastewater treatment plant on Císařský ostrov. “These actions alone represent investments approaching thirty billion. At the same time, we launched a tender process for the contractor of the second stage of metro D, also in the amount of thirty billion crowns,” added Vyhnánek.
What is being built in Prague?
According to Hřiba, the previous coalition of the Krnáčs did not know how to deal with investments effectively. “Previously, it was spent on nonsense, for example in IT, I canceled unnecessary projects worth one hundred million crowns,” said the mayor. According to him, the current coalition managed to end or start a number of key projects. “A geological survey was carried out for us and the construction of metro D started, after ten years of stagnation we are building new routes, opening a record number of P+R parking lots, repairing the Barrandovský bridge, rebuilding the Trojská lávka, building the Štvanická lávka and in a few weeks we will start the Dvorecký bridge, “Hřib listed.
The opposition lacks the right
Ondřej Prokop, the number two electoral candidate of the ANO movement in Prague, on the other hand, is convinced that it was Krnáčová who had to start from scratch and that Hřib’s coalition, on the other hand, prepared metro D and Dvorecký most. “I myself am curious what the current mayor Hřib will pass on to his successor, apart from the art of self-presentation, he is really great at that,” said Prokop.
“I personally lack the most investments in the area of affordable housing. Prague has fallen asleep in this respect and that must change. We need to have enough apartments, for example, for the necessary professions, such as teachers, health workers or policemen and firefighters,” said Prokop. The coalition mainly devoted itself to the repair of neglected urban apartments and the acquisition of land for the construction of new ones.
Winning proposal for a new information system in Prague:
The Citizen Democrats, who are running a candidate in the September municipal elections together with TOP 09 and the People’s Party, want to see more money in transport. “This coalition did almost nothing for the completion of essential Prague infrastructure, such as the Radlická radial, the Vysočanská radial, the roofing of Spořilovská or the purchase of land for the ring road,” claims Portlík. “It’s not just about transport, there is a lack of capacity in Prague’s education system from kindergartens to secondary schools. The same applies in the social area, where there is a great shortage of places in homes for the elderly,” the mayor pointed out.