The Free People want to return common sense to Prague and drive out the Pirates
photo: Archive of the PrahaIN.cz editorial office/Veronika Blažková
COMMENT A smart city – but in a completely different way than the way the Pirates paint it. This is how the Svobodných’s idea of the ideal shape of Prague looks like. Cleverness lies in social engineering of all kinds, but in natural symbiosis and the operation of market principles to satisfy demand.
There is no point in lying to yourself – our capital is not flourishing, if I may paraphrase Václav Havel’s famous words from his legendary first presidential speech. In particular, Pirates and people from the now completely untrustworthy interest association Prague have made our metropolis an experimental space for their phantasmagoria. What did they offer their fellow citizens in the ending election period? Arrogance, angering drivers with cyclists and pedestrians, socialist management, when subsidies prolong the agony of the incompetent. If you want to live in Prague with dignity, you can usually forget about this basic human need – because of all the mushroom-Cizina amateurism.
A program for everyone
As for specific priorities, they are clear to us at Svobodné in Prague. It is necessary to get to the Prague circuit as quickly as possible. We have to abandon the mindless preference for cycling over other road users – it is not an opposition to cycling as such on our part; however, we refuse to paint cycle lanes wherever it is possible. Off-road cycle paths are the solution.
In the event of electoral success, we are ready to immediately abolish – or fundamentally reorganize – the Institute of Planning and Development of the Capital City of Prague. It is an institution that “swallows” approximately 350 million crowns for its operation every year. The results? Nice drawings and visuals without any practical effect.
It is interesting that now, before the elections, the “ice” has moved a little in the case of another similarly useless institution, namely the Prague Innovation Institute. The director of this, which he has been talking about for a very long time as a dumping ground for the Pirates and their friends, is resigning himself as of September 30. This gentleman’s name is Bohumil Kartous and he really has the “ideal” expertise: just like the outgoing mayor Hřib or Mrs. Pekarová Adamová, he passed the Aspen Institute. He is also the head of Czech Elves, a self-proclaimed party that censors opinions on the Internet.
What else do we have in the electoral program? We want to promote the digitization of public administration, but without the now traditional tunnels provided by the Pirates and people and companies not connected to them. We also want a much more flexible running of the regular agenda, for example when issuing building permits.
Of course, I can’t forget the “classics” either, i.e. housing and energy prices. The city is not a state, so it cannot help its residents directly with financial support. However, you can influence the prices – at least in a partial way – through municipal companies, such as Pražská plynárenská. So they were happy to introduce a special “energy tariff” for, for example, sports clubs, so that they would not have to close their sports grounds and sharply increase the amount of membership fees due to cheaper energy.
In the area of housing, we reject social engineering of the urban developer type and cooperative housing. It is a nonsensical concept that cannot bring about affordable apartments in practice. It is absolutely essential to speed up the processes of spatial planning, construction management and the associated development construction itself. Only enough apartments can bring affordable housing – either in the form of personal ownership or ours.
The end of the upper echelon
The Prague municipality must stop playing the role of an eternal “crawler” over the city districts. Rather, it should help in specific matters that the city districts cannot handle on their own.
It is precisely in the new setting of the relationship between individual city districts and the capital city (the mayor) that I see an absolutely fundamental and positive element of the Us Svobodný program. I dare to say that our program is truly a first-class, comprehensive document for every citizen of Prague. At the same time, Svobodní are going into this year’s municipal elections in Prague with the number 1. Let’s together give this number and the mentioned program a practical meaning!
The author of the text is Veronika Blažková.