Representatives of the Paměť národa and Prague 1 agreed on Monday to place a car wreck destroyed during the war in Ukraine on Prague’s Národní třída on the occasion of this year’s commemorations of 17 November.
Paměť národa announced the news on its Facebook profile. Officials of the municipal district initially did not agree to the installation, but the negotiations took a turn only with the arrival of the new mayor, Terezie Radoměřská, from TOP 09.
“The placement of the wrecks from Ukraine is appropriate because if there is anywhere where practically the whole of Europe is fighting for freedom, it is exactly in Ukraine,” said the new mayor of Prague 1. Mikuláš Kroupa, director of Post Bellum, the organization that manages Paměť národa, said on Facebook on Monday that the wreckage from Ukraine, along with several explanatory panels, will be placed on Národní třída near the intersection with Spálena street.
Paměť národa acquired eight cars destroyed in Ukraine during the Russian military invasion and is displaying them in Czech cities. People can see the three vehicles destroyed by rocket fire in České Budějovice, Kroupa said last week.
The organization wanted to place one of the cars on Národní třída near the National Theatre on 17 November. Still, Kroupa said Prague 1 refused to install the wreckage, saying it was in no way related to the celebrations of the Day of the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy.
Petr Bidlo, a spokesman for the Prague 1 authority, countered that the wreck would create a dangerous element in the requested location, and the organization did not accept the authority’s proposal to place it elsewhere.