Political scandal in Czech Republic leads to prime minister’s resignation
Anna Sonny, 21 June 2013
A murky scandal has cast a cloud over the Czech Republic’s political landscape. Prime Minister Petr Necas resigned last week after losing the support of his coalition partners, leaving the country in a state of uncertainty.
The scandal involved Necas’ aide and alleged mistress Jana Nagyová, who has been accused of bribery and abuse of power, after she allegedly ordered military intelligence to spy on a number of civilians, including Necas’ estranged wife, and offered posts in state-controlled companies to three members of parliament in return for government support.
The carpet has been pulled from under the Czech Republic government’s feet; despite the fact that Necas has given up leadership of his party entirely and has decided not to run in future elections, the country’s constitution requires that the whole government will now have to step down.
Necas and his coalition will act as caretakers until a new government is formed, but it is unclear how this will happen. The centre-right Civic Democrats are hoping to find a new leader in order to stay in power until the next election, which is scheduled for 2014, but this would require the support of their coalition partners and President Milos Zeman. If a government is not formed, or if the parliament agrees to dissolve itself, elections will be brought forward. If they are held early, the Social Democratic Party are likely to be successful as they are currently performing quite well in the polls.
There has been talk of the possible appointment of Miroslava Nemcova, the speaker of the parliament’s lower house as the Civic Democrats’ new leader. Although she has been praised for her good reputation, questions have been raised about whether she has enough experience for the post.
However, it seems that a clean record and a history-making appointment of the country’s first ever female prime minster could outweigh the importance of an experienced ministerial record for the Czech Republic right now; the country is definitely in need of a political clean-up.