The mayor of Prague 10 met the squatters, the town hall will deal with their project
An empty apartment building in Malínská Street, which squatters occupied for a few hours on Saturday, November 26: Photo: Facebook Really Good Squats
The mayor of Prague 10, Martin Valovič (ODS), met yesterday with representatives of squatters who recently occupied an unused house in Strašnice for several hours and are demanding that the town hall provide them with space to build an independent social and cultural center. After the meeting, the mayor and the representative of the squatters, Jiří Nesvačil, told journalists that the office will deal with the project and possibly select suitable premises. They will meet again in the second half of January
Squatters organized by the Really Good Squats (ODS) occupied an empty apartment building in Malínská Street on Saturday, November 26 before noon. Subsequently, the police and representatives of Prague 10, which manages the building, also arrived at the scene. After several hours of negotiations, the squatters finally agreed to leave the building in exchange for a meeting with the mayor, which was acknowledged today.
“They came up with relatively constructive things, and the ones they presented to us, I would say, I would have head and heels,” Valovič commented on the meeting. He added that the presented project is fundamentally no different from other community centers that Prague 10 has provided in the past. “I can imagine that the rent can be symbolic, it is worth finding a space and agreeing on own operation,” said the mayor.
The spokesperson for the squatters, Nesvačil, said that their goal is to create a center that will combine a social function and the offer of help to those in need with a space for alternative culture. It should include, for example, a cafe, library or workshop.
The center should operate on a purely volunteer basis. “We don’t want to take a sponsor under any circumstances, a sponsor from a borough, a state municipality or some rich person,” the spokesman said.
He added that the squatters accepted Valovič’s argument regarding the house in Malinské, which, according to the concerns, is in poor condition and very unsuitable for the purposes of the center. The squatters will thus have to wait for a statement from the town hall and an offer of another space.
“In the event that an agreement is not found, although we will do our best to oppose it, in that case we will consider other actions, and we can then talk about other direct actions either in Prague 10 or other city districts,” added Nesvačil.
The ODS group was created as a reaction to the eviction of the Klinika Autonomous Social Center in January 2019. The building of the former lung clinic in Jeseniova Street in Žižkov was occupied by activists in December 2014, later they rented the building free of charge. When the contract expired and the building was acquired by the Railway Administration, it was vacated by the executor.
In Prague, there are more neglected buildings that become the target of squatters. In recent years, in addition to the former clinic in Prague 3, for example, in 2018 they occupied the Šatovka estate in Šárecké údolí for a few days, or a year earlier for less than a day, two buildings on the corner of Hybernská and Senovážná streets.
The Zlatá lofi building, occupied in 1990, is often referred to as the first Prague squat. Other squats were built gradually, the most famous of which include Villa Milada in Prague 8, the former estates Ladronka in Prague 6 and Cibulka in Košířy, or the former workers’ colony Buďánka in Prague 5. There, everywhere against squatters the police intervened, many of them ended up in court.