Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:07:43 +0200https://english.radio.cz/scandals-rock-czech-political-scene-ahead-local-senate-elections-8591776© 2026 Radio Prague International Three weeks ahead of local and Senate elections the Czech political scene is fraught with discord. The Civic Democrats, the strongest party in the Czech governing coalition, has been hard hit by a blackmail and entrapment scandal involving two of its deputies. Last weekend brought another bombshell – the daily Mladá fronta Dnes alleged that two Civic Democrats – rebel deputy Vlastimil Tlustý and Interior Minister Ivan Langer as well as opposition leader Jiří Paroubek of the Social Democrats had in the past been in contact with the mafia, publishing recordings of telephone conversations to prove its point. The governing coalition has been severely weakened by these scandals and the election campaign has turned into a vicious mudslinging match. Radio Prague spoke to political analyst Jiří Pehe about the impact of all this on the upcoming elections. encr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas)webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) https://english.radio.cz/sites/default/files/images/bem_topolanek_langer.jpg?timestamp=1591357989 https://english.radio.cz/scandals-rock-czech-political-scene-ahead-local-senate-elections-8591776 Radio Prague International Radio Prague International radio.prague.int@gmail.com clean 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9