Czech Republic and the Political Crisis

The current Czech political crisis erupted on 13^th June 2013 when the Unit for Combating Organised Crime and the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office (from Olomouc) raided the cabinet building and several ministries of the Czech Republic along with several offices of politicians and entrepreneurs. The next day, the police confiscated gold and money from these people that they had in a bank in Wenceslas Square.

This affair stems from many smaller incidents starting before 2010 involving some prominent lobbyists like Petr Tluchoř, Ondrej Páleník, Roman Boček, Milan Kovanda and Lubomír Poul. The best known entrepreneurs involved in this affair are Ivo Rittig, a businessman who is connected to many companies in ČR as a shareholder and Roman Janoušek, a millionaire connected to Pavel Bém (another ODS politician and between 2002-2010 mayor of Prague).

On the day of the arrest, Prime Minister Petr Nečas of the right wing ODS reacted by saying that he hadn’t done anything illegal. The biggest role player was Jana Nagyová, an adviser to Nečas. She is a prominent member of ODS, becoming rich after the introduction of capitalism in Czechoslovakia when she became a shareholder in some companies. It should be noted that Jana Nagyová was very active in the KSČ (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia) up until 1989.

Her role involved connecting all the above lobbyists and entrepreneurs to Nečas's government but she also ordered army intelligence to monitor Nečas's wife, Radka. Originally because she was probably connected to the Jehovah's Witnesses (which the authorities deem to be a potentially dangerous sect) but it has been revealed that Nagyová had a love affair with Prime Minister Nečas, so the main reason for monitoring Radka Nečasová may have been for more personal reasons. Jana Nagyová was also arrested along with her "friends" in the Czech elite on 13^th June.

On 17^th June, Nečas officially stepped down from his PM role and so did his government. Now there is a big debate about what will happen with the Czech government. Will there be a new election or a caretaker government? There is also the other possibility that Nečas's government will continue but with another prime minister. The most likely candidate for that role is Miroslava Němcová, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament. She's known for her very conservative views against homosexuality and the minimum wage.

As Marxists we are glad to see this exposure of the corruption which is rampant in the elite. These parasites have accumulated enormous wealth in a murky spiral of corruption where they have systematically abused their positions. Many, including ourselves, will be pleased to see the back of Nečas and hopefully his government.

However, we realise that the problems in the Czech Republic do not originate from this government but from the gangster capitalism that controls the country at the expense of its people.