Miroslav Kalousek
10 July 2012. Miroslav Kalousek, the Czech finance minister, has denyed reports that he threatened a police detective investigating Vlasta Parkanová, a member of his own party, over the purchase of four CASA transport planes that were allegedly overpriced by 658 million Czech crowns. The four planes have broken down several times in the mean time. She has denied all wrongdoing. Ms Parkanová served as defence minister in the coalition government of Mirek Topolánek when Mr Kalousek was already finance minister. Mr Kalousek and Ms Parkanová are longstanding friends and were both members of Christian Democratic Party at the time. They both joined TOP 09, the newly formed centre-right party, at its 2009 inception. Ms Parkanová as a member of the parliament enjoys immunity from criminal prosecutions. Petr Nečas, the Prime Minister, urged Ms Parkanová to voluntarily waive her immunity. She has refused to do so. The lower house of the parliament will have to vote to revoke the immunity. Mr Kalousek is the de facto leader of TOP 09 and has the ability to bring down Mr Nečas’ fragile centre-right coalition. Therefore the PM is treading lightly on these allegations. However he did criticis Mr Kalousek for contacting police and pledged to sack any cabinet member who does something similar in the future.
