Z is for Zástupce
How long before politicians compare Olomouc state prosecutor Ivo Ištvan to the notorious communist state prosecutor Karel Vaš?
The justice minister has labeled the arrests of half a dozen senior public officials on the orders of the state prosecutor a ‘public lynching’ that requires investigation. The former justice minister is calling for a law on sanctions for prosecutors. And the speaker of the lower house of parliament is convinced that constitutional principles have been violated and recommends 'corrections' in the interests of national security.
But it was the finance minister, after he himself had been questioned yesterday by the police about his role in the ‘trafika’ affair, that surpassed them all in his condemnation of the work of the state’s law enforcement agencies.
Interviewed on the street beside his ministerial car, Kalousek accused the state prosecutor of stirring up ‘class hatred’. “The interpretation of the state prosecutor sounds to me more like class hatred than a legal opinion,” he said. (Konstrukce pana státního zástupce podle mého názoru připomíná mnohem víc třídní nenávist než právní názor)
As he left, he pretended that he was a policeman pushing someone roughly into the car, and shouted ‘call some policeman to shove my head in...' The journalists giggled nervously. You can watch him in action here.
Kalousek had pointed out a few seconds earlier that “if it wasn’t so serious, I would think I was in some kind of absurd comedy”.
Or in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, Mr Kalousek? Politicians are deliberately trying to scare people by using the language of a totalitarian past to conjure up memories of the communist state prosecutor moving against political opponents of the regime. But Kalousek does not make a convincing victim and Ivo Ištvan does not make a convincing Karel Vaš.
The villification of the Olomouc prosecutor reminds me of the 1969 French classic by Costa-Gavras called ‘Z’ (here). The film stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as the prosecutor removed from the case of an assassinated opposition politician after uncovering sufficient evidence to secure an indictment, and in this way prevented from securing a conviction of the military police officers that ordered the murder.
How long before politicians remove Ištvan from the case?
The justice minister has labeled the arrests of half a dozen senior public officials on the orders of the state prosecutor a ‘public lynching’ that requires investigation. The former justice minister is calling for a law on sanctions for prosecutors. And the speaker of the lower house of parliament is convinced that constitutional principles have been violated and recommends 'corrections' in the interests of national security.
But it was the finance minister, after he himself had been questioned yesterday by the police about his role in the ‘trafika’ affair, that surpassed them all in his condemnation of the work of the state’s law enforcement agencies.
Interviewed on the street beside his ministerial car, Kalousek accused the state prosecutor of stirring up ‘class hatred’. “The interpretation of the state prosecutor sounds to me more like class hatred than a legal opinion,” he said. (Konstrukce pana státního zástupce podle mého názoru připomíná mnohem víc třídní nenávist než právní názor)
As he left, he pretended that he was a policeman pushing someone roughly into the car, and shouted ‘call some policeman to shove my head in...' The journalists giggled nervously. You can watch him in action here.
Kalousek had pointed out a few seconds earlier that “if it wasn’t so serious, I would think I was in some kind of absurd comedy”.
Or in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, Mr Kalousek? Politicians are deliberately trying to scare people by using the language of a totalitarian past to conjure up memories of the communist state prosecutor moving against political opponents of the regime. But Kalousek does not make a convincing victim and Ivo Ištvan does not make a convincing Karel Vaš.
The villification of the Olomouc prosecutor reminds me of the 1969 French classic by Costa-Gavras called ‘Z’ (here). The film stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as the prosecutor removed from the case of an assassinated opposition politician after uncovering sufficient evidence to secure an indictment, and in this way prevented from securing a conviction of the military police officers that ordered the murder.
How long before politicians remove Ištvan from the case?
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