Squatters have occupied a house in Strašnice, they want to build a new Clinic
The police did not confirm the occupation of the house at 1970/5 Malínského Street to the editors of iDNES.cz until before 2 p.m. “A group of squatters occupied a building in Malínského Street, the police and criminal investigators are investigating whether the owner did not give them permission. We are investigating,” police spokesman Richard Hrdina told iDNES.cz.
The police must first find the owner before they can proceed further. “Until we have it from the owner, we cannot intervene. The police officers should be on the spot and operate in the area, they are dealing with it,” added Hrdina.
According to the real estate cadastre, the building is owned by Prague and is entrusted to the care of the Municipal District of Prague 10.
At 1 p.m., when the squatters planned to announce the exact address, there were less than a dozen people at the site. According to their spokesman Jiří Nesvačil, more will arrive.
Around half past two, three city police officers were on the scene, and according to Nesvačil, they apparently contacted the state police. This was later confirmed by police spokeswoman Irena Seifertová.
“The matter is in the solution. We received a report of 5 people breaking into an abandoned house. The patrol on the spot found out that there were about 50 people there, so they called the state police to the spot,” she told iDNES.cz.
According to activists, the situation at the site is calm. “We will wait for what the police want from us. In the end, the people inside will agree on how to proceed, we reckon that some people will decide to stay even after a possible exception to leave the building,” said Nesvačil.
New community center
“Dozens of people called Really Good Squats (ODS) are currently occupying a long-term vacant house in a busy location in Prague. They want to open the building to the public and operate a non-commercial cultural and social center in it,” they said in a press release.
The group wants to follow up on the action of the Autonomous Social Center Klinika. “Since the eviction of the autonomous social center Klinika Prague, there has been a lack of space for independent culture and the organization of events that cross the boundaries of the market. We think it’s time to change this situation. That’s why we decided to create a new place where people could meet regardless of the state of their wallet,” said Nesvačil.
The squatters plan to clear the house of rubbish and put up banners reading “Empty houses, dead city”. Food and drink will be available inside. And he will play music too.
Already this evening, he plans to show films with social themes. People in the building also want to sleep, so they have mats and sleeping bags with them.
“We’re not about conflict, I just think it’s absurd to have empty houses and homeless people side by side. There are several vacant properties in Prague, yet decent housing is completely unaffordable for many residents. The shape of the city is decided by a handful of developers, while Prague belongs to all of us,” adds Nesvačil.
Activists plan to stay on site as long as possible, but they want to negotiate with the city districts and the municipality to legally acquire the space.
Reaction to the evacuation of the Clinic
Really Good Squats was created in response to the eviction of the Clinic in January 2019. Since then, they have been organizing various cultural events in empty houses.
The former pulmonary clinic in Jeseniova Street in Prague’s Žižkov was occupied by squatters in 2014, and after a few months they signed a loan agreement for one year. However, they did not leave the building after the contract expired. They held concerts and lectures there, they also had their cafe and shop here.
The building was previously to be acquired by the General Inspection of the Security Forces (GIBS), but in the end the building was handed over by the Office for State Representation in Property Matters (ÚZSVM) to SŽDC. She had it cleared out in January 2019.
In recent years, in addition to the former clinic in Prague 3, squatters in Prague occupied, for example, the Šatovka estate in Šárecké údolí for several days in 2018, or two buildings on the corner of Hybernská and Senovážná streets a year earlier for less than a day. So far, squats in the metropolis have practically always ended with the intervention of the police, the cases of Ladronka in Břevnov, Milady in Libni or Cibulka in Košíře are known.