Czech Foreign Minister and TOP 09 party leader Karel Schwarzenberg has accused state-controlled power company ČEZ of bankrolling political parties — with the exception of his own.
“It is a public secret in this country that Mr. [Martin] Roman and ČEZ finance political parties here, the only one that did not receive anything was TOP 09,” Schwarzenberg told the news server aktuálně.cz, referring to the recently resigned ČEZ chief executive and board chairman. Roman’s departure will have an enormous impact on domestic politics, he said.
‘It is a public secret in this country that Mr. [Martin] Roman and ČEZ finance political parties here, the only one that did not receive anything was TOP 09.’
Roman stepped down two weeks ago in a surprise move after heading the influential power company for more than seven years. His sudden departure, and the admission by Prime Minister Petr Nečas (Civic Democrats, ODS) that he had not been counting on renewing Roman’s tenure when it expired in February 2012, has stirred speculation that has not been quelled by the former ČEZ boss’s insistence that took a personal decision to quit.
ČEZ and other Czech politicians have reacted sharply to Schwarzenberg’s serious accusation. Company spokesman Ladislav Kříž denied the Prague-listed firm had ever sponsored political parties. Political parties fingered for such financing also issued denials.
“I regard it as unlikely,” said the head of the Civic Democrats (ODS) group in the lower house of parliament Zbyněk Stanjura. “No, such things must be in the annual reports,” commented Social Democrat (ČSSD) deputy chairman Jeroným Tejc. Communist Party (KSČM) and Public Affairs (VV) leaders also denied donations fromone of the country’s most profitable firms.
Aktuálně.cz said Schwarzenberg offered no proof of his assertion, which if true would amount to a major scandal involving the cover up of donations by a state-owned and publicly traded company and tax fraud.
Czech political parties are obliged to come clean about their financing in annual reports to a parliamentary committee, but the loopholes in the 20-year-old rules are so blatant — and the desire by parties to police themselves so lacking — that the exercise appears little more than an annual farce. The current center-right coalition (ODS-TOP 09-VV) is backing moves to tighten party financing and election rules with Nečas saying that the new rules should be in place within two years.
Polished operator
ČEZ has enjoyed close, some say incestuous, relations with various Czech governments, with top politicians serving on the supervisory board. It is to be headed now by none other than Roman, who was credited with being a smooth operator on the fickle Czech political landscape and an able publicist for ČEZ — and himself.
