Czech political representatives are to decide the following thing: Should a group of people who have come out of a recent police investigation as sample embezzlers be given back their property worth hundreds of billions of crowns? Sure, it is a very crazy idea, still, there is a coalition forming in the parliament that is intending to do such a thing.
It concerns the known problem regarding the coal limits in northern Bohemia and Mostecká uhelná společnost. The company aims to cancel an 18-year-old decision of the Czech government so that it can get access to reserves worth hundreds of billion. We’ve known this for long. The news is what say the findings of the Swiss prosecutor’s office that started investigating the owners of this company because of their money transfers to Swiss banks. The results put together the story of a Czech dream on an easy grasp of an enormous fortune, harmful Czech judiciary and acquiescent politicians who tailor “politics” to the coal miners’ needs.
This “politics” is remarkable from many reasons, but let’s point out one of them: the public interest has completely vanished. This can be shown at one particular thing – mining law [the so-called horní zákon]. The communist regime once decided through the law that natural resources are the property of the people and that is why it is necessary to mine them so that we can enjoy them. Let us now ignore the fact what price was paid for this “enjoyment” (those interested can go see Most and its surroundings). The important thing is that the view of natural resources has logically changed under democracy. We know well that mining of this “people’s fortune” is today nothing more or less than a business of a private company that generates fabulous profits, while others are affected by the immense damage on the environment and the economy and energy sector are unhealthily one-sidedly oriented. It is therefore logical that a modern society can freely decide on the reserves of coal and other minerals that belong to the state and have the possibility “not to extract” them, if it seems more advantageous.
The power of the coal lobby is nowadays so strong in the Czech Republic that it helped to overthrow the cabinet that had prepared such a modern bill and had wanted to push it through parliament. The coalition supported by energy giants that impose on us their own idea of prosperity gained lead. The prosperity which is calculated in the tons of mined coal and millions of consumed kilowatt hours. The prosperity, whose common good must be laughed at loudly by everyone who does not own a secret “Swiss account” and has at least opened a textbook on the history of global economy.
The dispute on the understanding of prosperity has been present on the Czech territory for twenty years and the coalition of coal and kilowatt hours has been scoring also because, in contrast to others, it can calculate well in advance what is at stake and does not hesitate to use lies and tricks. The above-mentioned conclusions of the Swiss prosecutor’s office bring new light into the dispute that should not be ignored by deputies if common good rings the bell for them.
