Oldřich Bubeníček has a lot to remember in regional politics in 16 years. Recently, however, the visit of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, whom he took to a street in Ústí nad Labem, where many people live on social benefits or low-income families, has stuck in his memory. “He said he had never seen this in his life,” recalls the outgoing governor in an interview that was created as part of the election series Bill Behind the Governor.
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You can find a report from the Ústí Region here:
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You have been in the council and subsequently in the leadership of the Ústí Region for sixteen years. In some data – such as social data – the situation is deteriorating and the region is collapsing. Why?
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The Ústí nad Labem region is unlucky to have such a more complex population structure. Unfortunately, this then manifests itself in many other areas. The Ústí nad Labem region also underwent a tumultuous development thanks to the ROP Northwest (according to investigators, local entrepreneurs and politicians participated in the manipulation of European subsidies in this case), which is still unresolved. One of the court hearings is still being prepared. And it’s a ten-year-old thing. It casts such a negative view on that region.
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On the other hand, I really think that in the eight years that I have been governor, we have had no scandal, that there was no problem, that it was not the same. At that time, the police shook hands at the regional office in quotation marks. I think that was also such progress.
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What complications have you experienced due to the ROP Northwest case?
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When I joined, the payment of subsidies from the ROP Northwest was stopped. It did not only concern the region, but also cities and private entities. I remember that a colleague in the council said that Děčín pays one million in interest per month because it is unable to pay a bank loan. Or if the mayor of Vejprt said that they should receive 23 million crowns from the ROP, and if they do not receive them, the town will be liquidated economically. It was a task for us to deal with it somehow. There was a problem that when Miroslav Kalousek was the Minister of Finance, he did not talk to me. He talked only with the Karlovy Vary governor Josef Novotný (CSSD). The turnaround came only when the official government of Mr. Jiří Rusnok was appointed (in June 2013).
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So we were able to make a deal. Although the amount was huge too. We had to pay 598 million, but originally they wanted almost two billion from us. The positive thing was that it was a state interest-free loan and we paid the last 80 million this year. So the new leadership of the region will no longer have this commitment.
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How to start the region? Is there a plan?
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There is a lot of talk about it, but probably if someone really knew how to get out of it, it would probably be done.
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So can the region change the situation?
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Something can affect regions, a little can affect cities. For many things, it depends on what the laws are. And that is a question for Parliament, the government or the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
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We have, for example, suggested that the so-called hygienic area for the apartment be returned. That means how many people can be logged in there. It’s a very simple thing. To date, this has not been done.
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We must say again objectively that in many cases the situation was caused by the cities themselves. This was the headless sale of municipal flats in the 1990s, when it was not just for citizens. Which was the intention, but in many cases entrepreneurs bought whole blocks of houses. Cities have lost control of who comes to them.
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Flats here were relatively cheap, and that was a problem when entrepreneurs moved the socially weak here, mainly from around Prague, where expensive flats had to be vacated.
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And can it be solved today?
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So I see one problem in the fact that the obligation to work has disappeared since 1990. And so many people have learned that it is enough to go to the employment office, submit the necessary documents and simply social support is certain. I used to work in a glassworks in Teplice. When I was a champion, there were also Roma, we got along perfectly. I still meet some people. For example, three generations of Horvatians worked there, and the problem was basically not.
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But when the duty was not to work, a lot of people started to like it. And today you have three generations in your families who don’t work. I think the biggest tragedy is when a boy who graduates from elementary school tells you that he is looking forward to working at the office because he is the only one at home who has to get up in the morning.
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Would you renew this obligation?
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Today, certainly no one will approve the obligation to work. But still, the social laws could be made so that they are not abused. So that the support is for those who strive, and not for those who abuse the social system.
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This year, not only the coronavirus epidemic affected the country. Do you not have data on how it will affect the inhabitants of the Ústí Region? After all, many poor people already live here, the number of people in execution has grown.
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I don’t have specific numbers. But the situation was already complicated. Unfortunately, many people who take out a loan do not even know what they are signing. These are loans where someone will ask you in quotes at the waiting room if you need money. She’ll come to him in a while to get it back. Of course he doesn’t, so he’ll sign another piece of paper. Once he gets in that carousel, he has no chance to get out of it. I don’t know if they could at least be forgiven.
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In the eight years you’ve been governor, is there anything you wanted to do and failed?
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It’s the social area. As a region, we tried to design something, to come up with something. But here I see the problem that it concerns several districts in the republic. Even in our region, it does not apply to all districts, but explicitly to five of the seven. The fact that the small part of the republic is complaining gives the impression in Parliament or at the ministry that we still want something and that others do not want it.
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I’m glad we got some parliamentary committees here, the government was here. I have it in my head when the government was here and the Prime Minister (Andrej) Babiš was there. We were in Sklářská Street in Ústí nad Labem. And when the Prime Minister saw the block of flats where there were no windows. There are only rags or foil, there is a complete mess, children are playing in it, so he said he had never seen this in his life. This is the moment when these people have to see it, and then they are willing to deal with it all the more and solve it. When the coronavirus came in the spring, other things are being addressed, I fully understand that. So these social things were put on the sidelines again.
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You wanted to extend your political career. You ran for the Senate in Teplice instead of Jaroslav Kubera a few weeks ago, but you failed. So your career policy is over?
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It was probably such a mistake that I was persuaded into the Senate elections. On the other hand, I didn’t take it tragically. I ran, it didn’t work out. When I see what the Senate leadership is doing now, I am not sorry that I am not sitting there. I will retire and just finish the mandate of the representative in Bílina. I hope I never let myself be persuaded to run again.
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What do you mean by “what the Senate leadership is doing now”?
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When I see that the Senate leadership is opposed to the government, to the President (Miloš Zeman), the President (Miloš) Vystrčil traveled to Taiwan. I think that all the highest constitutional officials should work together. In some regions, they even argue at the council. I can’t imagine it. I don’t remember arguing at the council for those eight years. I’m not saying that we have the same views on everything, but it has always been resolved in peace.
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You have a reputation as a politician who can communicate, give smiles, and deal with the situation without nerves. Have you ever banged on a table and so-called chips flew?
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There probably weren’t many of those cases. As you say, I can have fun with anyone who is interested in having fun normally and decently.
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And do you regret any decision you made as governor?
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The governor will not make so many decisions himself. I am exaggerating to say that I can only send a congratulatory letter to someone without my approval. The vast majority of those decisions go through at least advice. The thousands, tens of thousands of signatures I have made here in those eight years are all approved by the council or council.
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At the beginning, you opened the ROP Northwest grant case. Why doesn’t the region actively seek damage from those vineyards?
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It is a question of which region caused the damage. And we know this in the big cases that are in the republic – until no one is convicted, he is seen as innocent. But I said that if someone was convicted, I would not stand up for anyone.
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