Speaking to CTK yesterday, STAN leader Vit Rakusan said reports of an email suggesting that Deputy Justice Minister Karel Dvorak (STAN) was aware of the bitcoin donation to the Ministry are intended to distract attention from the substantive issues and the real culprits in the scandal.
Rakusan said he was not surprised at the publication of such information by the opposition, but it also indicated a lack of authentic effort from the senior government Civic Democrats (ODS) to fully address the case.
Rakusan’s Mayors and Independents (STAN) will discuss the matter with ODS today, he added.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) wrote on social media yesterday evening that he understands some nervousness in the ruling coalition, and hopes that everything will be explained at the joint meeting.
Pavel Blazek resigned as the justice minister over the billion-crown donation to his office. He also withdrew from the candidate list of the Spolu coalition (ODS, Christian Democrats and TOP 09) for the autumn parliamentary elections and suspended his ODS membership. Blazek’s economic deputy at the Justice Ministry, Radomir Danhel, has also quit.
A week ago, the STAN leadership asked their coalition partners to guarantee a position for Dvorak even after the new minister takes office. According to STAN, Dvorak must also have access to all information about the investigation if STAN are to be held co-responsible for governing.
However, Justice Minister-designate Eva Decroix (ODS) and ANO deputy parliamentary leader Alena Schillerova told Czech Television on Sunday that they had an email suggesting that Dvorak knew about the intended bitcoin donation to the Justice Ministry.
The email indicates that the bitcoin matter was addressed at a meeting of the ministry’s leadership in December 2024 and that the document was assigned to Dvorak, Decroix said. She also stressed that at this stage facts were being gathered and she cannot assess whether Dvorak should continue to be a deputy minister.
“Such information is intended to give an impression that everyone is somehow to blame and to divert attention from the substance and the real culprits,” said Rakusan.
He added that he was not surprised at such actions by the opposition. “However, in my opinion, this is not an authentic effort by ODS to face the matter head-on, which it has declared. We also want to talk about this with the ODS representatives at a bilateral meeting on Tuesday,” he added.
Fiala said there was too much speculation and emotion in the public space, which does not help anything. “That is why I understand a certain nervousness in the ranks of the governing coalition,” he said. “I believe we will explain everything at our joint meeting. It is not in the interest of either Spolu or STAN to escalate the situation. The only ones who would benefit from this are the opposition and the pro-Russian forces in the country.”
According to Rakusan, there will be no sensation following investigation of the email.
“Moreover, the email in question is just the Justice Ministry’s response to (lawyer Kari) Titz, saying that if his client wants to return the hardware, he must go to court, and if he wants to donate something to the state, the law must be observed,” Rakusan said. Titz represents the convicted drug trafficker Tomas Jirikovsky, who donated CZK 1 billion in bitcoins to the Justice Ministry.
