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Jiří Čunek resigns, finally

Behind the scenes of the minister's final days

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
November 7th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Čunek met an onslaught of journalists after the press conference at which he announced his intention to resign from his posts as deputy prime minister and regional development minister following several high-profile scandals.
Despite its vaulted ceiling, the Černín Parlor elicits a feeling of claustrophobia.
It’s Oct. 31, and the modest, ground-level conference room in the Senate’s Kolovrat Palace is crammed with cameramen, photographers and microphone-wielding journalists whose excited fidgeting can only mean one thing: Jiří Čunek, the deputy prime minister whose latest debacle had once again bathed him in the negative spotlight, is going to make a statement.
The last-minute press conference comes after an Oct. 29 Czech Television report accused Čunek of stashing away 3.5 million Kč while collecting welfare benefits before entering politics in 1998.
Ironically, Čunek is chairman of the Christian Democrats, a party whose platform seeks to patch holes in the social benefits system.
In January, Čunek was nearly discredited when his former aide accused him of accepting a 500,000 Kč bribe when he was still mayor of Vsetín, east Moravia, and these fresh allegations could signal an end to his high-profile political career.
With evidence stacked against him and the media audience calling for his head, Čunek maintains a calm, complacent demeanor as he enters the room and takes a seat next to Martin Horálek, the Christian Democratic Party spokesman, who initiates the press conference with a defensive assertion.
“The only reason Mr. Čunek organized this conference is to clear his name amid an ongoing media campaign to mar his reputation,” he says, referring to the work of Dalibor Bártek, the public Czech Television channel reporter who broke the scandal.
In his Oct. 29 report, Bártek presented documents that show Čunek effectively exploited a loophole in the system by using a duplicate identification card to deposit 3.5 million Kč into various bank accounts between 1996 and 1999. As the sole breadwinner in a five-member family with a reported income of 20,000 Kč (never mind hefty bank accounts and property), he collected nearly 200,000 Kč in housing and social benefits during those years, the report states.
Because Bártek publicized confidential information in his report, Čunek retaliated Oct. 30 by filing a criminal complaint against Czech Television.
Still, Čunek is unable to deny the charges, instead choosing to justify his actions with statements that elicit laughter from the journalists present.
When a Mladá fronta Dnes reporter asks him how he can possibly look voters in the eye, Čunek maintains his actions were completely legal.
“I collected social benefits based on my declared income,” he says. “At the time, the law allowed the State Social Service to distribute benefits based on declared income, not property value. While it’s true that I had long-term savings, this money came from previously taxed incomes, and therefore did not affect my eligibility for social benefits.”
Apparently flabbergasted by this response, the reporter asks a more basic question.
“Aren’t social benefits meant for poor people?”
According to Čunek, she has been misinformed. “The benefits are for any eligible person who has a use for them,” he says. “If they are working and saving up money while they collect them — in my opinion that’s nothing unethical.”
To the slaughter
Given his unabashed loathing for the media, Čunek’s sudden willingness to discuss his bank account suggests he is being pressured by the bigwigs within the governing coalition — Deputy Prime Minister Martin Bursík and Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek.
At high noon Nov. 1, these two tired-looking men lead Čunek in front of a group of journalists who gather at the government office building to hear his departing words.
“In the interest of the government coalition, I have decided to step down from the post of deputy prime minister and regional development minister.”
And that’s not the end of it. After abruptly halting criminal proceedings against him in August, Supreme State Attorney Renata Vesecká decided to reopen the case in which Čunek — then mayor of Vsetín — stands accused of accepting bribes from a real estate company in 2002.
Although the media has anticipated Čunek’s resignation for days, the meekly delivered statement sends a solemn murmur through the hall. After months of defiantly sweeping scandals under the carpet, it is difficult to believe the Čunek saga is really over — if deprived of his ministerial posts and forced to resign from his position as Social Democratic chairman, Čunek will still remain senator for the Vsetín and Valašské Meziříčí district.
Aside from the opposition Social Democrats, whose chairman, Jiří Paroubek, had criticized his actions for months, those who monitor corruption among local politicians welcome Čunek’s stepping down.
“Of course, we see Čunek’s stepping down as a positive development — we would have liked to see it sooner, but the state prosecutor scrapped the case,” says global watchdog Transparency International spokesman Michal Štička. “If anything, we’re surprised that it took so long — it should have been a matter of hours, not days.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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