VV MPs allege bribery, blackmail

Controversy continues to swirl around the embattled Public Affairs (VV) party as two MPs have gone public with accusations that party leaders are guilty of bribery in one case and blackmail in another in exchange for loyalty and media silence.

Deputy Jaroslav Škárka has come under fire from party leadership, as well as some of his fellow MPs, for comments he made in an interview with a journalist from the weekly news magazine Respekt, in which he said he was given money by VV co-founder and strongman Vít Bárta and other VV leaders - namely fellow deputies Michal Babák and Radim Vysloužil - to keep mum on the party's finances.

He told the magazine he had received "close to a deputy's salary" in envelopes every month since September. A deputy earns about 59,000 Kč a month. Škárka, who is VV's executive deputy chairman and has detailed knowledge of the party's funding streams, said he received the money as an incentive to not discuss how the party is financed.

"Some [party] sponsors are not real sponsors, and I know about it," he told the magazine.

Once the Respekt hit newsstands, Škárka immediately backed off his comments, claiming he had made them as a joke only after discovering he was being secretly taped by Respekt reporter Ivana Svobodová, who conducted the interview.

"[She] asked me several times for an off-the-record interview, and then I found out, when she leaned forward, that she had a switched-on dictaphone in her bosom," he told the Czech News Agency (ČTK). "It seemed very unfair to me and this is why I fabricated several untrue stories."

Škárka, who is currently in Kazakhstan, did not return messages left by The Prague Post.

Svobodová has since admitted that she did secretly tape the interview, but told ČTK that Respekt has spoken to more VV sources who have admitted to accepting money in exchange for silence.

Representatives for Bárta and VV Party Chairman and Interior Minister Radek John declined comment, but both have aggressively denied ever having bribed MPs. On April 4, John filed a criminal complaint against an "unknown offender" and vowed to investigate Škárka's claims, adding that Škárka himself will be investigated.

"The only way to face this case is to let it be properly investigated by organizations active in criminal procedure," John said in a statement.

Prime Minister Petr Nečas told journalists April 4 that Škárka's allegation warrants a thorough explanation by the VV.

"If the statement by Škárka proved true, the situation would be naturally very serious," he said. "Škárka is now speaking about a hoax. In my view, this is an extremely silly way of communicating with the media."

The Respekt interview came out just days after another ranking VV deputy, Stanislav Huml, sent an e-mail to other party MPs alleging he had been blackmailed by party leaders when he joined the party. He did not name John or Bárta by name but said he was subject to a search by the private security firm ABL, which was owned by Bárta prior to his entrance into politics. It is now owned by Bárta's brother.

"They seized my PC and telephone, and they forced me to accept an ABL assistant; otherwise, I would not get a post in the Chamber of Deputies," he wrote in the e-mail, which was leaked to the media April 1.

Huml later posted a statement on his website claiming he would not comment on what he called an "internal communication leak."

"These are very serious charges [made by Huml and Škárka]," said Jiří Pehe, founder and head of the Center for Social Market Economy and Open Democracy, a left-leaning think-tank. "I think if you put these two affairs together it only confirms the most skeptical and dire theories people have of this party - that it's a private business entering the field of politics. It's ABL's takeover of one sector of the government."

The cases of Huml and Škárka are the first instances in which VV deputies have publicly announced dissatisfaction with the inner workings of the party. In recent weeks, anonymous sources within VV have told media outlets - including The Prague Post - that several MPs were considering leaving the party either to defect to other parties or to form their own caucus. Some reports said as many as 11 VV deputies were considering leaving, complaining the party was run too heavy-handedly by Bárta, who is considered by most to be the true leader of the party.

"I think we're watching the beginning of the implosion of this party," Pehe said. "It's something that could have been expected from the beginning. This is not a real party. They don't have any real ideology that would hold its members together. I would be truly surprised if VV is in the next Parliament."

- Filip Šenk contributed to this report.

Jack Buehrer can be reached at
jbuehrer@praguepost.com