Meet the Mayor
At the end of last month, Prague got a new mayor: thirty-nine year old Pavel Bem, from the Civic Democratic Party, was elected Prague's sixth mayor since the end of communism. So what are the aims of Mr Bem as he leads one of Central Europe's largest cities over the coming years? For an insight into Mr Bem's visions for Prague, I recently met the mayor and asked him how he would like Prague to change during his term in office:
"Prague is a metropolitan and urban area of over one million residents. It's very logically a city with dozens of problems, especially in the areas of transportation, technical infrastructure and public safety. And these are three areas in which I really plan visible and definitive changes. I would like to see Prague's transportation become much more functional in the future; I would like to a see at least partially finished an infrastructure system of expressways surrounding Prague. Public safety and a decrease in violence and property crime is another priority, and I think that investing in the metropolitan police and collaborating and cooperating with the state police in a more effective way are the answers."
And to your ambitions for Prague as an international city: some Czech politicians such as Jaroslav Bures have spoken of EU institutions moving to Prague. Do you have any such ambitions for Prague, or are you quite content in just keeping it as a prominent international tourist destination?
"Prague has already become a part of Europe and I would even say part of the European Union, because really hundreds of thousands of people are coming from Europe to see and visit Prague, and that's amazing. Promoting Prague and attracting European institutions to come to Prague could be a good way of increasing the already high reputation of the city itself. But also attracting more and more people, not only tourists but maybe employers of various European institutions, because then they would just spend time in Prague, consuming our services. And that's definitely a matter of a future increase in gross domestic product. So I absolutely agree with Mr Bures, and I think it's a good idea."
