Prague, Jan 6 (CTK) – The European policy of the Czech government is fully in the hands of Tomas Prouza, state secretary for European affairs, who goes to Berlin for instructions, Jan Zahradil, first deputy chairman of the opposition rightist Civic Democrats (ODS), said yesterday.
He said this is proved by the leaked e-mails of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD). Zahradil also said the hacking of Sobotka’s private e-mail, which was disclosed on Tuesday, is scandalous.
Other politicians use more moderate words to describe the attack.
Zahradil said the leaked facts are perhaps even more terrifying than the hackers’ attack alone because they reveal the fundamental influence of Prouza and other non-elected officials.
“It is therefore no wonder that the Czech government fully copies the Berlin-Brussels federalist course, including the acceptance of the euro and the mandatory redistribution of migrants,” Zahradil said.
He said it has also been confirmed that Sobotka knew minimally one week beforehand that a vote will be taken on the mandatory quotas at the EU summit in Brussels last September and that the Czech Republic will lose in the vote.
“All his strong words about the rejection of the quotas were designed for the public, while in fact, Sobotka was going to the summit to suffer an obedient loss,” Zahradil said.
The Government Office rejected Zahradil’s statements.
“The government of the Czech Republic has European politics in its hands, that is all cabinet members who decide on the mandates of the prime minister for particular European Council meetings as well as on the course of the Czech Republic´s European politics,” government spokesman Martin Ayrer wrote to CTK.
A majority of politicians are rather more restrained in their comments on the hacking of Sobotka’s e-mail.
“I do not read others’ correspondence, the less so such as was stolen,” ODS chairman Petr Fiala wrote on Twitter.
“The attack on the prime minister’s e-mail is disgusting. This is even more true of the media dissecting of his e-mails, which was also true of the release of Necas’s intimate writings gained from wiretappings,” Pavel Belobradek, deputy prime minister and Christian Democrat (KDU-CSL) chairman, wrote on Twitter.
Former prime minister Petr Necas’s (ODS) rightist coalition government fell in June 2013 amid a scandal involving the head of his office, Jana Nagyova, whom he married later in the year after he divorced his wife. Nagyova was also entangled in a scandal with secret services and the media leaked the wiretappings of her intimate phone calls with Necas used in the legal proceedings against her.
Deputy PM, Finance Minister and ANO chairman Andrej Babis said it is scandalous that someone broke into the PM´s e-mail. He noted that Sobotka is not the first statesman whose private e-mail correspondence was hacked.
“We should have learnt a lesson from it and thoroughly secure at least the ministers and leading state representatives against such cyber attacks,” Babis texted to CTK.
Human Rights Minister Jiri Dienstbier (CSSD) also condemned the violation of the prime minister’s privacy.
“A public release of a private correspondence, either authentic or fictitious, is abominable,” Dienstbier told CTK.
The police should investigate the case, prosecute the perpetrators and prevent them from continuing their criminal activities, he added.
Labour and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksova (CSSD) wrote to CTK that she herself fell victim to the White Media server that published Sobotka’s e-mails in the past.
In consequence, she considers all that she is sending via her private or official e-mail potentially public, she wrote.
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