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What a mess, and that's not including
the one left behind by the flooding. Vladimir Spidla had
been talking about raising taxes even before he was elected
premier but with cleanup costs approaching 80 billion crowns
($2.6 billion), he decided to ram a major tax increase through
Parliament. He lost by one vote, cast by none other than
Hana Marvanova, the Hana, who had given him so much trouble
when he was trying to put a coalition government together
with her party. She said she was merely keeping her promise
not to vote for any tax hike. The normally reserved premier
was livid, however. He had taken a lot of heat from the
Zemanites in his party for allowing the Freedom Union to
join their government and now here they were backstabbing
them on the first major vote. Actually the rest of the Unionists
were just as angry with Hana. Her infantile conduct, as
Spidla labeled it, could easily get them kicked out of the
government or cost them one of their three ministries. They
called on her to resign her seat in Parliament, but she
refused and that left the door open to Spidla to form a
minority government with the consent of the Communists.
Bluff or no bluff, that got the two sides to work out a
compromise calling for Vladimir to talk things over thoroughly
with Hana before she would toe the line. She stands to lose
a lot of the respect she won for being an honest politician,
which may sound like a cliché, but goes a long way
in this country. With such a bare-thin majority, the only
way she can at least abstain on the government's next tax
package is for Jan Kavan to get his ass home. Although a
representative for the ruling Social Democrats, Kavan has
been moonlighting as the chairman of the UN's general session.
He figured his vote this time around wasn't necessary because
a Communist member of the opposition was laid up in the
hospital (where he later died) and therefore their two absences
canceled one another. That gave Spidla just 100 members,
the absolute minimum necessary to get the package through,
and on first count it seemed he got them. But suddenly another
Communist raised his hand and claimed his vote had been
miscounted. So they took a second vote and when it was over,
all government eyes were glaring at Marvanova, who sat there
and radiated integrity. In spite of her promise to cooperate
in the future, Spidla isn't taking any chances and has made
it clear to Kavan that Prague comes first, New York second.
But given the choice, Kavan would just as soon stay in New
York. The Srba contract-killing story and the allegations
of corruption at the Foreign Ministry continue to dog him.
Now it's been revealed that when his safe at the ministry
was opened two years ago, a million crowns in cash was discovered
inside. Kavan scoffed at the amount, insisting it was more
like 300,000. Fine, Mr. Minister, whose money was it and
how did it get there? Kavan blurted out it came from political
donations, in which case the laws requires it to be taxed.
Did you declare the money for tax purposes, Mr. Minister?
Kavan took a couple of weeks to ponder the question, as
well as the one concerning the whereabouts of the money.
Since all documents relating to the safe were destroyed
by a ministry employee, who died suddenly thereafter, the
answer in the end turned out to be quite simple. Kavan had
been in error about the political donations. The money had
been a loan from his brother all along. And now back to
the peace and serenity of New York. At least Kavan can claim
he has never been a trustworthy person from the start. But
others like Petra Buzkova have a lot riding on their wholesome
images. The Minister for Education found herself in deep
yogurt on the first day of school when it was revealed that
she had enrolled her daughter in an exclusive private school
run by the French government. Her excuse that she made the
decision as a mother and not as a minister didn't wash and
she soon found herself scrambling to come up with salary
increases for teachers in Czech public schools. Of course,
there's still the flood to pay for, but money has been pouring
in at an unprecedented rate. The EU alone has contributed
ten times more than all the money given following the floods
in Moravia in 1997. But just when Prague is flushed with
money, three men pull off the biggest bank heist in Czech
history. In broad daylight they stopped an armored van,
subdued the three guards inside and hauled off 150 million
crowns ($5 million) in sacks weighing thirty kilos. The
director of the security company charged with guarding the
van has insisted throughout that the three men were professionals.
Indeed, the robber who got the guards to surrender the van
without firing a shot was reportedly wearing a mask of Ronald
Reagan. He should be easy to point out in any forthcoming
lineup. Another famous political face from the eighties
appeared in court this month to answer charges that he betrayed
his country when Soviet tanks rolled into Prague in 1968.
Milous Jakes, the last Communist premier of Czechoslovakia,
flashed his toothy, groundhog teeth as the charges were
read against him and his former comrade, Jozef Lenart. Of
course, the case was never in doubt from the beginning.
Czech judges have proven themselves unwilling to deal with
members of the former regime and their colleague in this
case was no exception. Perhaps to show they are no longer
a threat to the capitalist world, Jakes and Lenart chose
to celebrate their victory at McDonald's.
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