In her life, Adriana Krnáčová has gone through many turbulent periods – ups and downs in politics, personal successes and struggles, as well as a serious illness. She even wrote a book about it, which has certainly helped many people facing a similar fate. She has managed it all, remains interested in politics, and holds many sensible views on, for example, the development of the capital city.
Recently, there has been speculation about whether you might return to active politics. So are you considering it?
Considering it is one thing, but another is under what banner I would run. And I do not have a banner. When you observe politics for a long time, then enter it and understand how it works, later leave it and gain distance, you begin to see how things should be done differently. And I do not see people with whom I could do things differently.
Nevertheless, you follow developments in Prague and politics in general very closely.
Yes. I recently launched my own website, adrianakrnacova.cz, where I publish a video almost every week on various issues in Prague. It is meant, to some extent, as a guide for people so they can make decisions that do not harm Prague, as has been the case over the past eight years.
You have openly said that politics had a significant impact on your health. Would you return to it despite that risk?
Now I know how to approach it. Back then, I threw myself into it headfirst and invested all my energy in it. But if you take the job seriously and do it as it should be done, you have very little free time. Not even on weekends, because you have to attend various events – from ceremonial openings to many others. You do not have time to rest properly. So I had very little rest and, on top of that, faced enormous pressure – partly because I am a woman, not entirely Czech, and not born in Prague – even colleagues held that against me. And then there was the group I belonged to, which was a disaster. Public administration requires a certain level of education and experience. Over the past eight years, we have seen that even if someone is, for example, a doctor, they may have no understanding of how public administration works. So I had people around me I would not wish on anybody.
Why, as mayor, did you not choose your own team?
That was not really possible – we all know how candidate lists are formed. I could not even replace them, because they were elected. It is true that a mayor can influence certain things, even without a strong portfolio, although the role is often seen as mainly representative – but that does not apply in Prague. I took on my own agendas because I saw that otherwise nothing would move forward. Being mayor is a highly political role, but at the same time Prague is an operational unit. You have to understand how it works, not be afraid to intervene, and sometimes even raise your voice at people who are not doing what is necessary.
Is the situation more complicated because Prague has 57 city districts? Is that not too many?
That is far too many. It is a major structural problem for Prague and very costly. It is analogous to the more than six thousand municipalities in the country, which could be reduced by at least half. In Prague, it would be absolutely ideal and beneficial to reduce the number to ten, or at most fifteen, essentially functioning as municipalities with extended powers. The other city districts would still exist but would no longer handle all the responsibilities they currently handle.
There is constant talk about the lack of housing and insufficient construction. Yet when I travel around Prague, construction seems to be happening almost everywhere. Where is the contradiction?
The projects currently under construction began eight or more years ago. Prague lacks approximately 70,000 apartments. That means that even if ten to fifteen thousand units are completed now, it still does not come close to meeting demand. Supply is low, demand is high, which significantly drives up prices. But that is not the only reason. We must also realize that city districts and residents generally do not like new developments in their vicinity and very often block them.
Do you mean the NIMBY phenomenon (“Not In My Backyard”)?
Yes, exactly. And that is a major shortcoming of mayors who are unable to explain the necessity of development – that the city must densify, not sprawl outward. The more it spreads, the more expensive the infrastructure becomes. The original idea behind the metropolitan plan, developed by architect Roman Koucký, was to densify the city and create a so-called “city of short distances.” That was the guiding principle. But it was abandoned, and the city expanded outward. This also affects transport. The population will continue to grow, people will continue commuting, but roads cannot be expanded indefinitely, and public transport is already reaching its limits in many places. Again, it comes back to densification instead of expansion, to short distances. But this has been abandoned because, returning to the NIMBY issue, resistance from residents is sometimes irrational and local politicians are unwilling to confront it – they do not want to argue with people because they want to be re-elected. That is fatal for the city.
You mentioned local politicians. They are elected for four years, but urban development must be planned for much longer periods.
Exactly. They want to be re-elected, so they avoid controversial decisions. I have always said that the best politician is one who does not want to be re-elected. Because then they can make decisions that are not popular but are necessary and based on their convictions. And I truly do not understand why people want to hold office if they are not doing a good job.
Do you think the political scene lacks strong personalities? It is interesting that in connection with the upcoming elections there has been speculation about figures like you or Pavel Bém…
Pavel Bém had the advantage of holding 52 percent in the City Assembly and could therefore do what he wanted. I had a one-vote majority, so the situation was much more difficult, and I did not have full support within my group. So his situation was significantly easier, and it was also a different time. But yes, there is a lack of people who are educated, capable of following things through, able to formulate their opinions and stand by them, rather than constantly changing them as we often see on social media. That absence is not only in politics.
If you were to return to politics, would you be interested only in city-level roles, or perhaps also the Senate?
The Senate? Not at all. I am still too young for that. (laughs) I am an executive-type person. I cannot imagine myself there. I earn my money through work.
Did your time in politics change you? Did you become more pragmatic or cynical?
I entered politics at a relatively mature age, so it did not change my nature. Whether I have the mayoral chain, a service car, several assistants – these are just attributes. I call them the trappings of power. And I do not need them.
You recently marked thirty years since moving to Prague. Can we say that Prague is your primary home, or is it still Bratislava?
You never forget Bratislava, because I was born there, in the city center. It is close to my heart. But my home is Prague.
Do you still sometimes hear, even after all these years, that you are an outsider?
No one dares to say that anymore. (laughs) And besides – 95 percent of people in Prague are outsiders.
Necessary expertise
Being the “ruler of Prague” may sound impressive. Do politicians at City Hall succumb to that? “To begin with, I must say that without certain high-quality, competent civil servants who know their agendas in detail, the city would have a serious problem,” emphasizes Adriana Krnáčová. “If one fool arrives, the city can handle it. But there must not be too many. Recently, however, it seems that incompetence is spreading like an infection, and one bad decision is followed by another, even worse one. That is why I say that people entering local politics need relevant education. It is not enough to be a good doctor or, for example, a welder. At the very least, they need a two-year intensive course on what public administration is and how it works, as well as certain level of financial literacy. It is simply not acceptable for activists, adventurers, and thieves to continue occupying these positions.”
CV BOX
Adriana Krnáčová (born September 26, 1960, in Bratislava) is a former Mayor of Prague and former Deputy Minister of the Interior.
She studied art history and languages at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava and obtained an MBA from DePaul University in Chicago.
In 1995, she founded a private gallery in Prague, and five years later she began working for Transparency International. A year later, she became Executive Director of its Czech branch. She later worked for Johnson & Johnson and founded the consulting company BOS.
From January 2014, she served as Deputy Minister of the Interior. In autumn of the same year, she was elected to the Prague City Assembly for the ANO movement and subsequently became Mayor of Prague. She currently works in her own consulting company BSFY in the field of spatial planning and construction proceedings.
She worked in organizations such as the Czech Healthcare Forum, Public Against Corruption, Zaostřeno, Healthy Czechia, and Bring Back Our State!
She has written three books – Hubri, 21 Days and Nemesis: Dark City.
She is divorced and has sons Martin and Jakub and a daughter Karolína, a granddaughter Margot, and grandsons Matyáš and Rory.
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