Corruption and Fico

Slovak spectator has a very interesting article about Robert Thicko complaining about attempts to corrupt him. Now i have to say i didn't expect this, i actually find it very encouraging that he personally is prepared to talk about it.

Of course the obvious thing many will say is why doesn't he turn the corrupters to the authorities. The answer is simple, corruption at this level works in a VERY careful way, the real corrupters would never have met or have anything to do with the nexus of people doing the approaching to Fico so it is not that simple. Had he tried to reveal who they were or tried he might have been found dead after all. There are huge stakes in things like that. I think its courageous that he warned them off.

There is a serious underworld in every country including Slovakia of course they mainly grew under Meciar but since they 1990es they are being in effect pressed to clean up by buying legitimate businesses and shutting up and stop being criminal, so the country can join the EU mainstream in this respect also. Its unfair of course because these are ill gotten gains, but this is the history of most societies' development, its better to have these dangerous people running a shop rather than running the government or killing people (see Bulgaria Ukraine etc etc).

This is actually good news, him talking about it publicly should be recognised as a positive, and clearly distinguish him from Meciar. Maybe the guy is a true nationalist, wanting to do good for Slovakia. He might be slightly misguided on economics (But so was Dzurinda, the transpetrol or airport privatisations were "stupid" ones). But overall the trend is good. Fico is not outright corrupt. He didn't come to government for the money, it was his silence on this matter so far and the Meciar factor was my main concern, this move by him is laudable and we should recognise a positive development when we see one. If he wanted to make big bucks and build vila electra v.2 then he wouldn't say what he just has, he would keep quiet on the issue..

This ofcourse doesn't mean that
1. the bastards in the regions are not very corrupt further down the food chain HZDS in particular
2. we should stop keeping an eye on him. He is a young man and as far as i know he is not rich so he might be tempted still...
3. His ministers like Dzurinda's are a completely dodgy lot, Harabin in particular, Pociatek and Jahnatek.

my conclusion: If the economy is not defaced, the corruption is kept lower than Dzurinda, Slovakia joins the Euro and the price for all this will be a little bit of Socialism, Meciar still in politics but powerless, and we have to hear some pointless thundering about the evil hungarians now and then with no consequence, then i raise my glass of orange juice to Fico. If he does these things then he is a true patriot and has a very good chance becoming a respectable political leader of the center-left and deservedly so, but only if he keeps the conditions above...

see story here http://www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok.asp?cl=25018

Now Slovak spectator can take this stupid graphic off

"Fico claims attempts have been made to corrupt him

PRIME Minister Robert Fico suggested that there have been attempts to corrupt him. However, he has never filed any charges in this respect.

During an October 30 conference of the employers association Klub 500, Fico said that “had I agreed at the very beginning with the proposed procedure in the case of [oil transportation company] Transpetrol [which Slovakia is trying to buy back from the bankrupt Yukos], neither I nor 15 of my generations to come would have ever had to work again”.

Fico’s spokeswoman Silvia Glendová told Sme that the PM did not turn to the police because “he could be filing charges from morning till the evening”.

Svetlana Husárová, a spokeswoman of the Slovak General Attorney’s Office noted, however, that “it is a civic duty of the prime minister to file a criminal announcement if he has any such information”.

According to Fico there is a system in Slovakia that produces large amounts of money that serve to enrich individuals and to finance political parties.

“This is a system that is able to produce billions of crowns, which really are classic dirty crowns,” he said.

[10/31/2006 10:33:19 AM]"