Culture minister: Important hurdle falls on the way to a buyout of the
pig-farm at Lety
Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman has indicated significant progress
made in negotiations aimed at removing a pig farm from the site of a former
Romany concentration camp. The presence of the farm at Lety, south Bohemia,
has plagued several administrations and elicited sharp criticism from the
European Commission.
The shameful presence of a pig farm at the site of a concentration camp
where some 1,300 Romanies were interned during WWII and where hundreds of
them died in inhumane conditions while others were sent to gas chambers in
Auschwitz, has been a thorn in the side of many Czech governments. The
twenty year-futile drive to find a solution, either through a buyout or a
transfer of the farm to a different location, recently came under fire from
80 MEPs who called on the European Commission to secure the farm’s
removal since the Czech authorities were clearly unable to do so. A few
months ago the government indicated it was close to finding a solution and
Culture Minister Daniel Herman has now revealed that a key hurdle in the
negotiations had been removed and the government was ready to discuss the
cost of a buyout.
“I have been asked to secure an expert evaluation of the land and
property in view of making an offer to the farm’s owners. Preliminary
negotiations have taken place with the owners and the fact that they are
now willing to discuss a buyout is a big step forward. The two sides have
tentatively discussed the cost which is why we are getting an expert
evaluation, but I cannot reveal any details for fear of marring the
negotiations.”
Although the owners had originally insisted on a new pig farm being built
elsewhere, the firm’s representative Jan Čech told Czech Television they
would wait and see what kind of offer the government was ready to make on
the grounds of the expert evaluation.
“The evaluation is a prerequisite for a debate in the government as
concerns the financial offer. As I see it, it will serve as the basis for
further negotiations on a sales deal. If the price is interesting then we
can take the respective steps to reaching an agreement, if it is not, we
will make our demands known.”
The firm is in a good negotiating position. The Sobotka government has
indicated that it will do its utmost to secure the farm’s removal before
its term in office ends in 2017 and according to Culture Minister Daniela
Herman there is now a drive to reach a firm deal ahead of the annual
commemorative act that takes place in Lety in early May, which would enable
the prime minister to announce that the problem had finally been resolved.
Whether the minister for human rights and minorities, Jiří Dienstbier,
who had been tasked with finding a solution to the problem, will be there
to saviour the moment, is unclear. There is speculation that Mr. Dienstbier
could be one of the ministers forced to go in a pending cabinet reshuffle.
Culture Minister Herman who was commissioned by the government to secure an
expert evaluation of the land and property on Monday denied any link,
saying that his ministry was naturally involved in view of the fact that
the memorial to be built there would in future fall under the
administration of the Ministry of Culture.
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