Czech Premier Fights to Survive Amid Spy Scandal
Source: Bloomberg
Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas is in a scrap to keep his job after prosecutors said one of his closest aides was linked to illegal spying and bribery.
Jana Nagyova, who runs Necas’s office and has worked with him since at least 2006, was among seven people including two former lawmakers charged, prosecutor Ivo Istvan said in Prague today. Officers seized as much as 150 million koruna ($7.8 million) in cash and some gold after raiding 31 homes, said Robert Slachta, the head of the police’s organized crime unit.
Necas, 48, who refused to quit, is entering his fourth year in power after quelling a rebellion over austerity in his Civic Democratic Party to become the longest-serving Czech premier in a decade. As his popularity falls, he has to contend with an opposition emboldened by an opinion-poll lead a year before elections and the threat of more Cabinet strife.
“It looks like one of the gravest threats this government has faced so far,” said Martin Lobotka, an economist at Erste Group Bank AG’s Prague-based unit, in a report to clients today. “While markets normally ignore domestic political turbulences, short-lived volatility on foreign exchange and bonds cannot be excluded.”
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-13/czech-premier-fights-to-survive-as-police-hold-close-aide.html
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