Social Democracy will sell the Lann Palace in the center of Prague to the current tenant, the Finep company, for CZK 201 million, announced ČSSD spokeswoman Jitka Pavlíková. According to her, the sale will allow the former ruling party, which has been absent from the House of Representatives since last year’s election, to pay off the vast majority of its debt in August.
The intention of the Social Democracy to sell the building in the neighborhood of the People’s House party headquarters has been discussed since the spring. “We have agreed on the sale, with the current tenant. We therefore assume that the overwhelming majority of the party’s debt will be repaid during the month of August,” said Pavlíková.
The Seznam Zprávy server wrote in March that ČSSD wants to get rid of debts from the past through the upcoming sale, which, according to party chairman Michal Šmarda, make it impossible for the party to do any political work. At the time, ČSSD had liabilities of over CZK 200 million on its current account with Fiobanka. “It means the possibility to pay off practically the entire debt with the company Fio. This will save ČSSD approximately CZK 1.5 million a month.
Last year, with a gain of 4.65 percent of the votes, the ČSSD did not exceed the legal five percent threshold for entering the House of Representatives for the first time during the independent Czech Republic. For the party, it meant another drop in income from the state after a series of electoral failures. Šmarda set the solution to the party’s bad economic situation as one of the main goals. In addition to the sale of the Lann Palace, ČSSD also reduced a number of employees.
The Lann Palace is a neo-Gothic style building on the corner of Hybernská and Havlíčkova Streets in Prague, opposite the Masaryk Railway Station building. It is protected as a cultural monument. The foundation stone was laid in 1857 and the entire structure was then completed in 1859, according to Finep, which is based in the building, on its website. The company renovated the building seven years ago, and according to the information at the time, it committed to give CZK 75 million of its own money to the repair. At that time, she rented the palace for 25 years.
Source: Novinky.cz and CTK
Photo: FINEP
