Čunekgate: Change in state prosecutor, Chamber of Deputies’ activities blocked, crisis over Čunek

There has been a shift in the alleged corruption affair concerning Deputy PM and head of the Christian Democrats Jiří Čunek. According to the daily Právo, the Supreme State Prosecutor has decided to take the case away from prosecutor Radim Obst of the Přerov district office.

The decision prompted great agitation in the ranks of the Social Democrats, whose MPs left a Chamber of Deputies session in protest. The session will resume on Tuesday. At a press conference, Ms Vesecká said several errors had occurred in the case.

The new state prosecutor will decide whether the case will make it to court, which might endanger the stability of the cabinet, or whether it will be shelved. It is probable that the change, which was proposed to Vesecká by Čunek’s defense, will delay the entire trial. According to Communist Party chair Vojtěch Filip, the communists also consider this recent development in the Čunek cause to be substandard and want an explanation as to why the prosecutor is being changed. Filip told journalists that he does not consider a vote of no confidence in the cabinet to be an extreme step given the current situation; rather, he views it as the only possible step. Čunek, on the other hand, is very satisfied. “We are very pleased that the Supreme State Prosecutor of the Czech Republic has acknowledged the reasoning we submitted and has decided to comply with our request,” his declaration states.