[GentlieGant]

Czech press survey - June 15 -

The excuse by Jiri Stanek, former head of the Defence Ministry´s armament section who says he could not but sign the suspected overpriced contract for the purchase of CASA planes as otherwise he would have been sacked, is outrageous, Lenka Zlamalova writes in daily Lidove noviny.

The police suspect Stanek in connection with the three-year-old contract together with the then minister Vlasta Parkanova.
Such an excuse is outrageous in the case of a man who is in charge of military acquisitions worth of billions of crowns, who should be a personality capable of negotiating with tough armament magnates, Zlamalova writes.


When condemning controversial deals struck by top-ranking politicians, people should not forget that such infamous deals, including the lease of the Gripen planes and the purchase of the CASAs or the Pandur APCs could never be completed without [lower-level] officials like Stanek, Zlamalova says.


Why do people like Stanek sign such contracts? Out of fear, without knowing what they are helping cover up? Or are they a part of political and economic interest groups? Zlamalova asks.


Stanek uses all possible means to defend himself, but he should know that judges have ceased swallowing up pure alibi-seeking arguments such as his, Zlamalova adds.


The purchase of overpriced and technically problematic military transport planes CASA is a story of negligence, haughty politicians, cowardly generals and money squandering by both politicians and generals, Jan Gazdik writes in Mlada fronta Dnes.


At the beginning, the military staff headed by Vlastimil Picek said a categorical "no" to the CASA deal and they gave cogent arguments in support of their position. However, they completely changed their mind and approved the deal unanimously after a few meetings with politicians, irrespective of their previous warnings that the CASAs fail to meet the required criteria, Gazdik writes.


The staff members reacted cowardly to the "massage" they received from haughty politicians, who reportedly treated Picek far from politely when making him give in, and they even threatened to sack him, Gazdik says.


He compares Picek´s yielding to the pressure to the previous different reaction of former air force chief commander Jan Vachek who preferred resigning from the post to giving up his reservations about the planned lease of the Gripen planes, a deal which is also subject to police investigation now.
The case of suspected ex-minister Vlasta Parkanova (TOP 09) has generated a new phenomenon that can be called "the Kalousek paradox" and that sounds "I´m for the immunity of MPs to be abolished, but if the police want to accuse a member of my party, I would vote against his/her release for prosecution," Petr Honzejk writes in Hospodarske noviny.


Finance Minister and TOP 09 deputy chairman Miroslav Kalousek´s position seems internally incompatible. He who wants the immunity of MPs to be scrapped, must believe that the police are no instrument of power. On the contrary, he who defends MPs´ immunity, must be convinced that the police misuse power. It is impossible to think both, Honzejk writes.


Kalousek should also explain why he describes the prosecution of Parkanova as witch hunt. Such strong words are usually pronounced by those who lack strong arguments. It may also occur to some that by his strong words Kalousek is trying to cover up his own role [in the CASA deal], Honzejk says.
No one asserts that Kalousek is irritated because it was the Omnipol armament company, linked to his friend Richard Hava, that profited from the [now challenged] CASA deal. Nevertheless, one can legitimately ask Kalousek whether he would draw the witch hunt parallels if not the CASAs but Gripen planes were involved and if the accused politician were not his party colleague Parkanova but [former Social Democrat defence minister] Jaroslav Tvrdik, Honzejk writes.