Babiš wants to build a government district in Prague's Letňany again

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has said he intends to revive the idea of building a government district in Prague's Letňany district — a project he first proposed back in 2015 after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

In a Sunday video address, Babiš explained his initiative by saying he sees no point in housing ministries in historic buildings. “Why is the Nostitz Palace the Ministry of Culture, with the minister sitting in some aristocrat's old bedroom, instead of it being a museum?” the prime minister said. According to him, the project's future will depend on negotiations with Prague City Hall over the land plots involved.

The previous city hall leadership had already blocked this plan once before. When Babiš first presented the idea of a government district two election cycles ago, then-Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) rejected the proposal, calling it a “bureaucratic ghetto.”

Letňany was also originally chosen as the site for the so-called “super-hospital” — a large facility that would merge departments from three Prague clinical hospitals: Bulovka, Královské Vinohrady and the General University Hospital. Construction of this facility is enshrined in the government's policy programme.

Now, however, Babiš believes the new hospital could be built elsewhere, freeing up the Letňany plots for the government district instead. “We'll build this new metropolitan hospital on the grounds of the Královské Vinohrady hospital,” the prime minister said.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz