Good morning, this is… Beelzebub. How do you know in South Moravia that there will be any elections? Mladá fronta Dnes, with a large advertisement of the ANO movement (Czech Republic, everything for you with the Boss and a painted Czech flag on his face), brought the news about the election of the mayor of Znojmo Solarová as the leader of the regional elections, lightly praised the deputy governor, a member of the Jmk Council, a member of the Jmk Representative, the mayor Blansko, member of the city council, member of the city council, etc. Jiří Crha from the ODS (I mention the exemplary list because it was once Jiří Crha who, on the recommendation of marketers, called me a “Japanese calculator”) for the new South Moravian trains purchased from EU subsidies and, on the contrary, she cheated ex-heytman Hašek and his regional government for repairing the castle’s riding stables in a fridge. Nothing about governors Juránek, Šimko and Grolich, which is not nice at all towards the governor’s colleagues. So let’s break it down. The sparrows on the roofs of the Zemské dom in Brno, the seat of the South Moravian Region, are chirping about the fact that the “grand coalition” of ANO and ODS is not only in the House of Representatives, but also in the region. It already works well in Brno, sometimes covered by the fig leaves of a minority of councilors from other parties. The governor of South Moravia in this election period is the stand-up comedian Jan Grolich, who has this genre in his blood so much that through stand-up videos he now runs the endless series “My from the 4th floor” (the governor’s office is located on the 4th floor of the regional office regions). No argument against taste, only the region is not an endless stand-up comedy and the governor should be the real head of the region, not just a comedian. His deputy Jiří Crha, by the way, a former very capable director of the Regional Office, moves on the Blansko-Brno-Blansko route depending on whether he is currently fulfilling the duties of deputy regional or mayoral Blansko. To be fair – he’s far from alone. The current leadership of the South Moravian Region is full of modern-day “Japanese calculators” across the parties, when it is not a problem to be mayor/deputy mayor and regional anything (deputy, councilor, committee chairman) at the same time.
But there is silence and peace, even Mladá fronta Dnes is silent. Well, it’s not Beelzebub Hašek, so it’s ok. To be fair for the second time – there are certainly politicians among my colleagues in the region who hold these positions and have results, such as Jiří Crha, František Lukl, Martin Maleček and others, but I have serious doubts about some of them as a citizen and former governor with knowledge of the functioning of the region . The region should not be just a travel agency or an office with a reserve fund, an assistant and refreshments for committee or commission meetings. The current state of the regional opposition was perhaps best demonstrated by the convening of an extraordinary meeting of the regional council (a week before the next regular meeting), where the opposition did not present or enforce anything at all. It is a shame for representative democracy in general, the meetings of the council are mostly just a formal “waving off” of the presented materials, when the greater excitement across the hall is caused by the ladies present, perhaps only materials related to the budget, investments and subsidies, especially individual ones. The public’s interest in the meetings of the regional council is minimal, and the political discussion as a mandatory point at the end has long since lost the intensity of the Kadrnka-Hašek duels, which, in addition to the two actors, the rest of the council and also the officials present were looking forward to.
But times are changing, and with them the form and level of regional self-government throughout the Czech Republic. At the end of today’s commentary, a few sentences on the subject of EU funds and South Moravia. I stand by the fact that the South Moravian Region has been extremely successful in the preparation and implementation of projects with the support of EU funds, under all its governors and regional “governments”. Projects often moved from one election period to another – one governor and council approved the plan, another dealt with contracts and implementation, and another was at the ceremonial completion – now I’m describing the story of the new regional trains. The plan was created under Hašek (against stiff resistance from other regions), contracts and implementation began under Šimek (he enjoyed his own within his own movement) and everything was completed and the trains are running under Grolich (and Crhy).
I had the honor of being with the region on projects of large scientific and research centers, on boiler subsidies, on support for transport infrastructure, on EU support for the city of Brno (e.g. new trams for public transport). I am very proud of the fact that ROP Jihovýchod (South Moravian and Vysočina regions) belonged to the top both in the quality of projects and in the use of EU funds and was not burdened by any subsidy scandals that ended up elsewhere in criminal courts. The ROP apparatus at the time, headed by director Marta Sargánková, today the rector of Masaryk University, has a lot of credit for this. A big thank you goes to her and her team in connection with the successful drawing of EU funds in South Moravia, as well as to everyone else who participated in the preparation and implementation of projects from the level of the South Moravian Region, the Regional Office, our organizations and also from the level of municipalities and cities. And the Lednice Equestrian Halls – were it not for the then intention to repair them from the so-called IOP (i.e. the government, not the region-controlled operational program), they would probably still be a serious blemish on the beauty of the entire castle grounds.
The region was one, but not the only, partner of the project and did not determine its future use by itself. In addition to the exhibition, Lednice also acquired a beautiful renovated hall, which is used for various events. And the fact that after the end of the so-called period of sustainability, the preservationists were not willing to extend the loan of the reconstructed Riding Centers to their operators (municipality, region, universities) is a very sad fact, which of course occurred several years after I left the position of governor. If I had been at that time, I would have done my best to extend the loan and to reach an agreement with the preservationists, it is widely known that I was very successful in negotiations about the region’s interests in Prague under any government (I repeatedly defended, for example, together with other colleagues, zero consumption tax for our winemakers). Since we have already passed Pardubice, I am ending today’s mega-long morning gloss and greetings from the board of the RegioJet in the direction of Prague Central Station
