Will the third attempt to kill the head of ERU fail as well? Is it all just a provocation?

It might be that Alena Vitaskova is really in danger of being murdered.

Or it might be that the threats to the life of this most troublesome of state officials (there have been at least two attempts on her life apparently, with the most recent occurring last week, when the car lift in her apartment building was tampered with) are idle threats, intended as deliberate provocation to justify what would otherwise be considered unacceptable.

Let us assume (and very much hope) that the threats are not serious. For example, it might be that an isolated and understandably paranoid Vitaskova is making them up, or at least misinterpreting them, in order to demonstrate to us all that her war on three fronts (against the profit margins of electricity distribution firms, the subsidies of investors in renewable energy and the criminal abuses of the solar subsidy scheme) is hurting its intended targets.

(An aside on the abuse of the solar scheme: Depending upon how naïve you are, this abuse was EITHER the work of ecologists, who grabbed temporary control of the executive and legislative branches of the Czech state in order to push through support schemes for their beloved renewable energies, OR it was the work of Czech politicians, who were the hidden owners of solar parks bought by CEZ at such inflated prices. Until recently, most impartial observers thought it was the first group. )

Or let us assume, for example, that the threats are not serious, but that Vitaskova is herself being deliberately provoked, in order to justify outside intervention against her, perhaps dressed up as her protection, to emasculate the office of a regulator that has become dangerously independent.

In both cases, the threats to Vitaskova’s life are not real, even if, in the first case, she might consider them so. I tend towards the second interpretation, that Vitaskova is being deliberately provoked.

Certainly she has become an extremely awkward problem for the energy establishment in all its various parts, legitimate or otherwise. She is resented by legitimate interests such as distributors of electricity and bona fide solar investors, both of whose business models are being damaged by her actions. And she is resented by illegitimate interests such as those conflicted politicians and businessmen alleged to have owned solar parks sold to CEZ. Her efforts threaten them financially, and may even land them in jail.

All want Vitaskova removed –but how? She is the head of an independent regulator with a six year term. One way is to convict her of abusing her powers. Another is to intimidate her until she resigns ‘of her own accord’. And a third way is to compromise her through an act of exceptional outside intervention the stated purpose of which would be to protect her and the independence of the office she leads.

The first two methods have been employed already, and might still achieve the desired result. The third resort we should expect shortly, and it will most likely involve the president, as I have suggested in an earlier post. Certainly, Zeman's "buffoons" in SPOZ (Miroslav Slouf's words, not mine) must be racking their brains for ways to exploit the Vitaskova factor on behalf of their leader.