Police trade unions push for Interior Minister Radek John to step down

Police trade unions leaders are set to meet Prime Minister Petr Nečas later on Tuesday to ask him to replace Interior Minister Radek John. More than a half of Czech police officers, along with thousands of fire fighters and civilian security forces employees, have signed a petition demanding Mr John’s resignation. They blame the minister for failing to prevent higher cuts in their salaries than he initially promised.

Radek John, photo: CTK

Every week seems to put more obstacles in front of the Czech Republic’s coalition government and its reform agenda. Following a quarrel between the Civic Democrats and the TOP 09 party over the future of Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra, it’s now the smallest coalition party, Public Affairs, which has found itself in the spotlight.

The party has yet to explain what exactly Public Affairs’ deputy chair Jaroslav Škárka meant when he said he was paid to keep silent about the party’s financing. But now the party head and Interior Minister Radek John is facing calls by the police trade unions to step down.

Over 26,000 members of the 41,000 or so strong Czech police force signed a petition asking Prime Minister Petr Nečas to replace Mr John. Another 4,500 fire fighters added their signatures to the document, along with thousands of civilian employees and members of the public. The head of the police trade union Milan Štepánek explains why.

Milan Štěpánek, photo: CTK

“Police officers and fire fighters are not just disgruntled because the minister failed to ensure enough funds for their salaries. More importantly, he failed to provide finances for the proper functioning of both the police and fire corps. That lowers the quality of the services we provide, and it creates a constant need to reorganize and optimize the force. Also, police officers didn’t like the way Mr John publicly spoke about them, their work and their allegedly excessive benefits.”

At the start of the year, the government lowered the salaries of all public employees by 10 percent as part of its austerity package. Mr John says the salaries of police officers decreased less than that, by around 7.7 percent. But dissatisfied officers argue the cut was even higher than originally promised.

On Monday, Interior Minister Radek John rejected the petition. He said there was simply not enough money for what the unions want and accused the unions of pursuing political interests.

“This is the first petition calling for a government minister to step down who received a mandate from the Czech people. But the people did not collect enough funds, which means we have to save up. If this were a petition calling on citizens to collect more money and give it to the interior ministry, that would make sense; that’s something I would welcome.”

Photo: Kristýna Maková

Police trade unions leaders are set to hand the petition to Prime Minister Petr Nečas on Tuesday. Mr Nečas said he would hear them out but suggested that it is not the unions who should determine the personal setup of his government.

The trade unions have not revealed what their next move will be, or if they plan to again stage another protest rally like the one in September 2010 when around 40,000 police officers, fire fighters and other public workers protested the planned budget cuts in the streets of Prague. And even if Radek John weathers the frustration of the Czech police force, it may still hurt his position within the party, two months ahead of a vote on the next party leader.