Petr Pavel 'walks out' on ODS

Pres. Petr Pavel said yesterday on CNN Prima News that the bitcoin transaction of then-Justice Min. Pavel Blažek of ODS with Tomáš Jiřikovský was such a serious matter that he'd be surprised if Finance Min. Zbyněk Stanjura of ODS didn't know about it. As debate-show host Terezie Tománková herself understood it, Pavel was basically saying that he didn't believe Stanjura's claim that he didn't learn about the bitcoin donation in time to stop it. Pavel's comment yesterday closely mirrored one by MP Hana Naiclerová of STAN, who left the chamber just before the no-confidence vote on June 18. She told MFD then that she wanted to show that she couldn't tolerate the approach ODS was taking in the bitcoin matter. If her vote had been crucial, she added, she definitely would have taken the side of the democratic government, because all the crooked scandals in the world are less important to her than democracy. Pavel himself said shortly before removing Blažek as justice minister that it wouldn't benefit the country if the entire government fell. It seems, though, that he wouldn't mind if ODS lost at least one more of its ministers.