No one has done more to sow distrust in the rule of law than Václav Klaus and Miroslav Kalousek. Miloš Zeman is now reaping the rewards.

Late last night, after the broadsheets had gone to press, ZSPO (as it should now be called after the Zemanovci were raised up the party logo) issued a short statement:

“The leadership of SPOZ gives its full support to the steps being taken by President Miloš Zeman to solve the current government crisis by naming Jiří Rusnok to lead a government of experts. This government is the only government that is able to guarantee the independence of investigations into scandals reaching to the very top of politics.” (my italics)

(Předsednictvo SPOZ plně podporuje kroky prezidenta Miloše Zemana na vyřešení současné vládní krize jmenováním Jiřího Rusnoka do čela vlády odborníků. Tato vláda jako jediná může garantovat nezávislost vyšetřování kauz sahajících až do nejvyšších pater politiky. )

Both the interior and justice ministers-in-waiting have stated that they intend to leave the state prosecutor and police to get on with their investigation undisturbed -as if there might have been an alternative!

The president, his party and his experts (in so far as they can be distinguished from each other) are reading from the same sheet of music. Rusnok's tasks are to safeguard the integrity of the state budget and the integrity of the state prosecutor.

The enthusiasm with which the president and his pals have entered into a battle for the independence of the state prosecutor, and then turned this fight into THE goal of his hoped-for government, is alarming.

It demonstrates how willing Zeman is to play politics with, and in so doing, damage the institution of the state prosecutor. NO ONE has yet furnished any evidence whatsoever that the independence of the Olomouc state prosecutor NEEDS to be protected by the president and his experts.

The head of state is exploiting, without the slightest scruple, the public’s residual distrust in the rule of law. In short, Zeman is reaping the rewards of what Václav Klaus, with his amnesty; Miloslav Kalousek, with his assaults on Plk. Mgr. Petr Lessy; and Pavel Blažek and Miroslava Němcová, with their threatening noises about 'correcting' the behaviour of the state prosecutor, have all sown.

And the fact that Klaus and Kalousek are the losers here is no compensation for this opportunistic political abuse of the public’s perception of the state prosecutor by the president.

Here is that statement by SPOZ again:

“This government is the only government that is able to guarantee the independence of investigations into scandals reaching to the very top of politics.”

I assume that this bombastic lie was written in the Castle yesterday evening. Dear Reader, things are bad, but surely none of you actually believes that an assortment of Zeman’s political pals is ALL that stands between us and a police state?

The head of a Soviet orchestra once sought to demonstrate that he was not anti-semitic by knowing exactly how many Jews he had in his orchestra; the head of an English orchestra proved that he was not by not knowing.

Zeman demonstrates his commitment to the rule of law by loudly proclaiming that he will protect the prosecutor from political pressure; the democrat shows his by asking if the prosecutor actually needs protecting.

When it comes to their true opinion of the integrity of the state prosecutor, Zeman, Rusnok and Marie Benešová, and their antagonists Kalousek, Němcová and Blažek, are two sides of one coin.

P.S. Jan Urban reminds readers of his blog today that two of Zeman's experts, Jiří Rusnok and Martin Pecina, were running the industry & trade ministry in 2002-2003, a fateful year in the business life of this country that is now being examined in forensic detail by a court in Switzerland! (see here)