Fiala government survives no-confidence vote, but doubts remain over ministers’ involvement
The coalition government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Wednesday survived a no-confidence vote in the lower house over a bitcoin scandal that has shaken the government in its foundations. Although the ruling coalition will be able to complete its full four-year term in office, many questions remain unanswered and analysts predict that the bitcoin scandal will cast a long shadow.
The revelation that the former justice minister, Pavel Blažek of the Civic Democratic Party, had accepted a one billion crown bitcoin donation for the ministry from a man convicted of drug trafficking, illegal arms possession and embezzlement exploded like a bombshell on the Czech political scene just four months before the country’s general elections. The justice minister resigned, but the opposition demanded the resignation of the entire cabinet and eventually initiated a no-confidence vote.
The leader of the opposition ANO party, Andrej Babiš, lambasted the government, accusing the Civic Democrats of trying to cover up what he called “their criminal activities”.
“Finance Minister Stanjura is lying when he says he was unaware of what was going on. It would not have been possible to accept a donation worth one billion crowns without his consent. Those involved in this murky deal are now looking for scapegoats. Who will they be? Administrative workers? The courts? The culprits are Stanjura, Blažek and Fiala. The audit, being conducted by the newly-appointed justice minister from their own party, is only meant to create a smokescreen. Why do we need a government audit, when the issue is being investigated by the national police’s organized crime unit?”
Just how much the prime minister and finance minister knew about the donation still remains unclear. Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura claims he was unaware of an existing document from the ministry’s legislative branch cautioning against accepting the donation and containing information about the donor's past activities. It was dated February 13 and went unnoticed for over a month.
The prime minister claims he had only vague information about the donation, with no indication of how grave the matter was. He said accepting the donation had been a mistake politically and ethically, but stressed that the minister had acted swiftly and had taken full responsibility for the failing. There was no reason, he said, to try to bring down the government over the matter.
“We have done everything in the past few days to try to explain what happened and how it happened, to provide all the available information. Our ministers have responded to questions from the assembly and, as promised, Minister Decroix has produced a time frame of how the events played out. But all we have heard from the opposition is insults and mudslinging. I am therefore relieved that the vote is over, that we survived and can go back to working for this country, both now and after the autumn general elections.”
Although the prime minister’s coalition partners closed ranks around the embattled Civic Democrats, enabling the government to survive its fourth no-confidence vote in office, the many unanswered questions surrounding the case have strained relations within the coalition. Despite the outward show of unity, the past week brought several meetings behind closed doors in which the prime minister was called on to explain the situation to his coalition partners. Meetings with the Mayors and Independents were particularly tense and party leader Vít Rakušan said the party is giving the Civic Democrats time to dispel the “existing doubts” surrounding the case.
Whether the party will be able to do that ahead of October’s general elections is highly uncertain. The criminal investigation into the affair will take time and the Ministry of Justice has promised that the first results of the audit will be made public in July.
