Jehlička: There is no money for the construction of the Kapice Library

According to Vítězslav Jandák, it would be possible to obtain an additional two billion, for example, from the privatization of the post office or Prague airport.

Prague - According to Culture Minister Václav Jehlička, it is not possible to build a new National Library (NK) building according to Jan Kaplický's design in Letná, Prague, because there are not enough financial resources for such a construction. The budget allocates 1.9 billion crowns for the library, while Kaplický's project would cost around four billion. Jehlička stated this yesterday in the discussion program of Czech Television, Questions of Václav Moravec.
    "As a minister, I can never start the construction of something for which I do not have money. That would set a bad example for the citizens," said Jehlička. According to him, an international competition cannot be announced without financial limits that would determine how much the construction can cost.
    According to the director of NK, Vlastimil Ježek, political will is lacking for Kaplický's project construction. "I don't really like the sentences: there is no money. It is much more correct to say: I do not want to allocate money for this," he stated.
    Former Culture Minister and MP Vítězslav Jandák (CSSD) agreed with him, stating that it would be possible to obtain an additional two billion, for example, from the privatization of the post office or Prague airport. According to him, the ODS blocked the construction of the library after Kaplický's project won the architectural competition. "Up until the moment Kaplický won, everything was quite good, everyone agreed with everything," he said.

Ježek is concerned that if the construction is continuously delayed, the money will ultimately not be enough for any building.

    According to Jandák, the amount of 1.9 billion excludes the option of placing the NK in the Congress Center, as suggested by the director of the National Gallery, Milan Knížák. According to previous estimates, its reconstruction would also require almost four billion, Jandák stated.
    Ježek is concerned that if the library construction is continuously delayed, the money will ultimately not be enough for any building. "The cost of construction work is continuously rising," he said. The solution, according to him, would be to complete the depository in Hostivař and continuously transport the books to Klementinum. Ježek labeled this option as the worst scenario, which is expensive, unecological, and inconsiderate of the book collection. "I definitely do not want to be involved in implementing a solution that I consider bad," Ježek responded to the question of whether he would leave his position in this case.