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“Bárta is finished, the system continues,” headlines Hospodářské Noviny, after a Prague court found Vít Bárta, founder and de facto leader of the Public Affairs party (VV), guilty of corruption. The former transport minister received an 18 month suspended sentence on Friday, April 13th, for having bribed party members in an effort to guarantee loyalty. The other defendant in the case, former VV vice-president Jaroslav Škárka was sentenced to three years in prison.
Since the elections of May 2010, in which the VV obtained over 10% of the vote, Bárta's party has become a “symbol of decline” in Czech politics, notes the Prague economic daily. However, “Vít Bárta and his political group are not the root of evil in Czech politics, just a product of the system that was shaken this Friday, but whose base remains solid”. The VV party is “one of the most bizarre examples of the local political scene” and “their tragicomic and sometimes very dangerous methods excel in their amateurish directness”.
Hospodářské Noviny argues that that corruption practised by other Czech politicians is much more sophisticated and inventive, and therefore less liable to prosecution. “If they went in front of a court, the whole political system would collapse”, it notes, nevertheless adding that the Bárta trial is a big step for the country’s young democracy.
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