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The headline in Mladá Fronta, largest Czech
daily, read Hardcore Radicals from Italy Heading towards
the Czech Republic. Their target was the NATO summit
that was to convene in Prague. Next to the article was
a picture
of the Minister of the Interior, Stanislav Gross, who is
responsible for police and public safety matters in this
country. Gross, the boy wonder of the Social Democrats,
was smiling and holding a glass of champagne. Had he just
announced a series of measures to stop the radicals cold?
No, because he had business other than the NATO summit
to take care of at that moment. Gross was standing next
to Karel Gott, a giant among Czech singers who had just
released a new CD. At Gott's request, the minister was
there to "bless" his CD. This is nothing out
of the ordinary for a minister who regularly cultivates
pop culture, who
uses it to keep his popularity high among voters. What
was extraordinary was the way Gross brazenly advertised
his relationship with the agency that organized the event,
the same agency that reaped millions from similar work
it had done on behalf of Gross' Social Democrats during
the summer elections. The same agency that employs his
wife, whose income, which the minister laughingly tried
to attribute to Amway sales, allowed the couple to buy
a plush condo in Prague. But neither criticism of the condo
nor his relationship with the GOYA agency has fazed Stanislav.
Standa, as he is affectionately known, leaves all other
politicians behind in popularity polls. This despite the
international scandal he caused by claiming that 9-11 leader
Mohammed Atta had met with an Iraqi operative in Prague
before the World Trade Center attack. Gross was simply
after the publicity, but the claim, which was later discounted
by Havel, has given ammunition to some in the Bush administration
for the war they want with Iraq. At home, Gross has little
to show for during his tenure at the Interior Ministry.
Ok, the ministry did launch an internet radio station,
but when a Polish Congressman waltzes across the border
and apprehends a suspects without extradition proceedings,
Standa is nowhere to be found. Every time a pedestrian
is run down in a crosswalk, Standa is nowhere to be found.
It finally took a policeman running down a family to get
Gross to announce that preventive steps would be taken.
But no sooner does he say that than another picture of
him holding a champagne glass crops up in the press. This
time he's being awarded a cross by his colleague and defense
minister Jaroslav Tvrdík for the work they did together
in providing security for the NATO summit. In stark contrast
was the picture next to Smiling Standa, which shows a man
being sentenced for murdering his ex-wife and her daughter.
The woman and her family had sought protection from the
man, but the police did nothing to help them. Even today
the police insist they can do nothing in such cases because
their hands are tied by the law. But Standa's hands certainly
aren't tied, not with all that champagne to drink.
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