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Current AffairsPublic Affairs dismisses top member amid corruption allegations
The Public Affairs party expelled one of its top members on Tuesday
evening, deputy chairman Jaroslav Škárka, after he had told the press
that the party was paying him under the table to ensure his silence on
financial dealings. If true, such accusations could ruin the self-styled
anti-corruption party, and whether true or not, they further unbalance a
coalition government already beleaguered by scandals. Christian Falvey has
a rundown of the events of the last few days. More
One on OneBusinessman and anti-corruption pioneer Karel Janeček: Whistle-blowing is a brave thing to do
Mathematician Karel Janeček runs the firm RSJ Algorithmic Trading, one of
the world’s biggest financial derivatives traders of its kind. Located on
just two floors of a building in Prague’s historic Malá Strana district,
the company has an annual turnover more than 230 times bigger than the
Czech Republic’s budget. Last year, the 38-year-old entrepreneur
established a foundation to support science and research while recently, he
crated a fund to fight corruption in the country by supporting
whistleblowers. Last week, the fund awarded 500,000 crowns to Libor
Michálek who disclosed a corruption case at the Czech Environment
Ministry. Radio Prague sat down with Karel Janeček at his company
headquarters, and asked him what made a successful businessman like him
launch a private campaign against corruption. More
Current AffairsDefence minister fights for his political future
Czech coalition leaders have crossed swords over one of the most
influential men in the Czech cabinet – Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra
of the Civic Democrats. Mr. Vondra has been dogged by problems lately, the
most serious of which is a questionable multi-million crown contract
relating to the country’s EU presidency at a time when he held the EU
portfolio. When the internet daily euro.cz on Wednesday published
information suggesting that Mr. Vondra had allegedly been aware of the
dubious terms of the contract which cost taxpayers millions of crowns the
two smaller parties moved in for the kill, demanding that minister Vondra
face the problem squarely and accept political responsibility for the
scandal. I asked political analyst Vít Hloušek if this is likely to be the
last straw for the embattled defence minister. More
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