Czech government faces first big scandal
The Czech Cabinet has barely been in office for a fortnight and it is already facing its first big scandal - the head of the Office of the Government, Pavel Pribyl, is reported to have a shady past. It emerged shortly after he took office last week that Mr. Pribyl allegedly headed a communist riot police unit that was sent to break up anti-communist protests in the streets of Prague in January 1989, on the anniversary of the death of Jan Palach.
"I just think that it is totally unacceptable. Imagine that in 1960, 15 years after the Second World War, the German Chancellor would appoint a former commander of an SS unit as the head of his office! I think that our reaction should be very tough and I believe that tomorrow we will see a very strong public reaction to the Prime Minister's decision."
You are going to demonstrate outside the government building, are you?
" Yes, and we hope that our appeal will attract many people. "
Faced with a growing scandal the new Prime Minister - and former interior minister Stanislav Gross - has nevertheless decided to stand by his man, at least for the time being. Speaking on national television on Sunday the Prime Minister said that during his years at the head of the interior ministry he had found Pavel Pribyl to be trustworthy and capable. As to his past Mr. Gross argued that in 1989, as a 24 year old, Pribyl was too young to have been given any real power and that like every other young man who had joined the police force under the communist regime he too had had to pass through the riot units used to break up street protests.
"Unless new facts surface -that I am not aware of -I see no reason to give in to the pressure just for the sake of being popular," the Prime Minister told viewers, pointing out that Pavel Pribyl had successfully passed the screening test which is a prerequisite for all public service employees. There are not many people who were with the communist riot police and can produce a negative screening certificate, the Prime Minister added.
However, Monday's edition of Mlada Fronta Dnes, the leading Czech daily, claims that the PM should double check his facts. Mr. Pribyl was not in the riot unit as part of his police training, he stayed in it long after in view of its career possibilities, the paper says.
Meanwhile more signatures are being added to the petition against Pribyl and when the Cabinet meets again on Tuesday it will have to pass through a cordon of protesters demanding Pavel Pribyl's dismissal. And the Prime Minister will have to answer not only to them but to his own coalition partners, the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union, who unwittingly voted the Prime Minister's man into office last week without being aware of his past and who are clearly very unhappy with the present developments.
