Klaus busts open the solar scam

29.10.2012 - EB

Václav Klaus's opposition to renewable energy took a curious turn yesterday. He declared that various lobbyist groups hidden behind NGOs have changed the energy laws to benefit themselves. Klaus had blamed Martin Bursík of the Greens in 2010 for the exorbitant solar subsidies, but why would he be bringing up the Greens now? MFD deduced that Klaus was instead targeting Andrej Babiš and his ANO 2011 political movement. Babiš is a threat to the established political parties and has also accused someone close to Klaus (Václav Petr of Erpet) of asking him for a bribe so that Klaus would not veto the biofuel law. But if Klaus was trying to spite Babiš last night, he did it in such an oblique way (without naming any names) that he stirred up a hornets' nest that could get many of his own supporters stung too. GM Jan Světlík of Vítkovice Machinery Group claimed recently that 40% of MPs are direct investors in solar power and that the rest used offshore companies to do so. Which ones of them did Klaus have in mind?

Glossary of difficult words

to bust open - (in this context) to expose, uncover;

scam - a dishonest scheme; a fraud;

NGO - nongovernmental organization, civic group;

exorbitant - (of a price or amount charged) unreasonably high;

to deduce - to draw a logical conclusion;

to spite - to deliberately hurt, annoy or offend someone;

oblique - indirect, inexplicit;

a hornets' nest - a situation fraught with difficulties or complications.



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