Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek or Police President Petr Lessy atack
13.07.2012 12:00
CeskeNoviny: Prague - It is either Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek or Police President Petr Lessy who does not speak the truth about their recent phone conversation about the police enquiry into the controversial purchase of the CASA planes, Jana Bendova writes in daily Mlada fronta Dnes today.
Either Kalousek outrageously tried to intimidate the police or his sincere words were wrongly interpreted by Lessy. Or is there another, quite a different explanation? Bendova writes.
In any case, the Kalousek-Lessy dispute is a horrible "contribution" to the Czech state´s reputation. Prime Minister Petr Necas should clearly solve the controversy by fully supporting either Kalousek or Lessy, Bendova writes.
True, Kalousek (TOP 09) has behaved fiercely when defending his party colleague and former defence minister Vlasta Parkanova against what he calls nonsensical police accusations over the CASAs purchase. He most probably really phoned Lessy, which is unacceptable, Bendova says.
However, the politicians who show indignation at Kalousek´s step should admit that it is a habit and usual practice of Czech politicians to phone and scold "disloyal" officials, state attorneys, journalists etc, she adds.
Cats are believed to have nine lives, how many of them does Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek have? Martin Zverina asks in Lidove noviny, adding that no other minister would politically survive turbulences similar to those Kalousek (TOP 09) has survived.
Two high-ranking police officers say Kalousek intimidated them, but PM Petr Necas reacted asking why the police president did not report his phone conversation with Kalousek to the interior minister, Zverina writes.
As if Necas were quite uninterested in the core of the affair, i.e. a minister´s attack on the police, Zverina adds.
It is possible that Kalousek will also survive his latest transgression of rules. The coalition arithmetics is favourable to him. However, what will come next? No one knows it, Zverina continues.
Kalousek should rather soften his bold style, because if he fails to politically survive some of his excesses one day, his fall would considerably harm TOP 09, the party he established and in which he prides, Zverina says.
It would be no surprise if the new justice minister, Pavel Blazek (Civic Democrats, ODS), appointed Lenka Bradacova head of the High State Attorney´s Office in Prague and if he eventually scrapped the reform of the state attorneys´ system proposed by his predecessor Jiri Pospisil (ODS), Lenka Zlamalova writes elsewhere in Lidove noviny.
Blazek may appoint Bradacova in order to calm down the tense atmosphere around the vacant post and then profoundly rework the system´s reform that Pospisil promoted along with Supreme State Attorney Pavel Zeman and Bradacova, who heads the State Attorneys´ Union, Zlamalova writes.
Many in the senior governing ODS actually are not opposed to Bradacova but they rather mind Pospisil´s draft reform that would strengthen the powers of the Supreme State Attorney´s Office (NSZ) and make its supervision of subordinate state attorney´s offices independent from the justice minister, Zlamalova writes.
Power within the state attorneys´ system would thus get centralised in a single place. Moreover, the two high state attorney´s office, in charge of handling the most serious corruption cases, would be replaced by a single special anti-corruption unit, Zlamalova writes about Pospisil´s draft reform.