The Director of the Sussex Centre for the Study of Corruption (SCSC), Dan Hough, was called upon by leading Czech newspaper Hospodarske noviny to discuss a corruption scandal engulfing Czech politics. Prime Minister Petr Necas was forced to resign on Monday 17th June following a rather messy - and, indeed, at times rather racy - scandal involving his closest colleague, Jana Nagyova. Ms Nagyova remains in custody for abuse of office and indeed for outright corruption, whilst Mr Necas stands accused of giving a recalcitrant MP a high profile public sector job. No matter whether this amounts to a criminal offence or not, Mr Necas has resigned as a result.
Professor Hough argued that although the details of the case are at times rather Byzantine, the essence of the issue is rather straightforward. And in two particular ways. On the one hand, Mr Necas came to power on a strong anti-corruption ticket. The fact that his government has become embroiled in such a scandal has subsequently negatively affected the relationships between both his ODS party and its two coalition partners and between the ODS and the wider Czech public. In this context, staying on as PM was subsequently impossible.
On the other hand, there is a broader more fundamental issue at stake. If a Czech Prime Minister is now no longer allowed to appoint (friendly or less friendly) people to public sector positions, then a lot of Czech politicians will be sleeping less easily this week. For many, this was quite simply one part of how Czech politics functioned. If the nature of politics has changed that much, then much of what passed as normal in Prague is now out of bounds. This case could subsequently have repercussions that have a much greater impact on political life than the case itself probably warrants.
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