The fate of the Liben bridge has raised tensions to such a degree that the three party coalition currently ruling Prague could fall apart before local elections this fall. Having failed to undertake basic maintenance on the bridge for years, the parties are now busy playing the blame game following a recommendation by the city council that the bridge be torn down and replaced. But the tension has had its unexpected comic moments. The Green Party’s Matěj Stropnický complained on Facebook that the mayor of Kbely Pavel Žďárský, who it would be true to say is not built like an marathon racer, had shoved him with his stomach.
“I was physically attacked by this fat person who shoved me with his gut in the smoking room,” Stropnický complained on Facebook. He said he’d been watching the city assembly proceedings about the Liben bridge from a monitor when an argument broke out about it. “I asked them politely to stop yelling. That’s when I was physically attacked.”
On a more serious note, Stropnický’s Green party is against the decision to tear down the Liben bridge and blocked a vote on the issue. Mayor Krnáčová says the Green party violated the coalition agreement by doing this, calling into question whether the coalition can survive. In effect it means that while Prague politicians thought they’d demolish the Liben bridge, the bridge could end up demolishing the them.
