Prague, Aug 2 (CTK) – The differences between the salaries of judges and other professions are too high, which does not help increase the judiciary prestige, Czech President Milos Zeman said in an interview with the Blesk.cz server yesterday.
Zeman noted that he appointed 20 to 30 new judges aged around 30 every month. They have a starting monthly salary of 70,000 crowns, while a teacher with a 20-year practice earns some 25,000 crowns, he added.
“I am no equalitarian, I admit that a pay difference according to performance efficiency should exist. However, sometimes I ask myself why judges are fighting for their pay rise so eagerly – they are the only professional group that can actually decide on its salaries itself, for instance, through the Constitutional Court. And whether the difference between the performance of a good judge and a good teacher is so striking,” Zeman said.
Commenting on the argument that the judges’ high salaries should guarantee their resistance to corruption, Zeman said such a view would be a gross offence for judges.
In the case of every profession, the incorrupt character resistant to manipulations of its representatives depends on their moral integrity, he added.
($1=24.648 crowns)
