World media comment on police raid of Czech Government Office
published: 13.06.2013, 18:15 | updated: 13.06.2013 18:23:16
Prague - A political earthquake, this is how the German press agency dpa has described today´s intervention by the police squad for fighting organised crime (UOOZ) at the Czech Government Office and elsewhere, an event that has also been noticed by other foreign agencies and media.
The Reuters agency writes in this connection that the Czech cabinet of Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) has won praise for having freed the state attorneys´ hands for enquiring into corruption, but it has faced a number of scandals since it came to power in 2010.
The French press agency AFP writes that several Czech political officials close to PM Necas´s ODS have been arrested.
Dpa writes about a political earthquake in the Czech Republic. It recalls that those detained include Petr Tluchor and Ivan Fuksa, who resigned as ODS deputies last November, thereby dropping their protest against the government´s draft tax package, and afterwards they gained lucrative posts on state companies´ supervisory boards.
Bloomberg says the scandal has brought PM Necas under the growing pressure of the opposition.
The Polish news station TVN24 has labelled the Czech scandal, showing the infiltration of politics by criminal structures, the biggest scandal in the past 20 years.
Austria´s APA cites the Czech media as saying that the raid may be linked to developments in state companies such as the Czech Railways (CD), Czech Forests (Lesy CR) and with financial transactions related to controversial lobbyist Roman Janousek.
Slovak servers Sme.sk and Pravda.sk report on the scandal, referring to the Czech media. The server TVNOVINY.sk has added a photo in which Necas appears in a sniper´s viewfinder.
"A commando has raided the Czech Government Office and arrested people! Necas has broken down!" reads a headline of an article on the tabloid server Cas.sk.
The Austrian daily Die Presse has reported, citing Czech sources´ speculations, that Necas suffered an attack of weakness.
Dpa, referring to the Czech government spokesman, emphasises that Necas is not in hospital.
Reuters mentions the Czech server iHNed.cz´s commentary saying that Necas cannot politically survive the scandal, also in view of his close relation with Jana Nagyova, the prime minister´s office head who is probably among the persons arrested today.
Brief reports about the Czech scandal have appeared on many European servers, including the French L´Express, Polish Gazeta and the Serbian radio station B92.
http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpra...police-raid-of-czech-government-office/950929