Ignoring of Constitution is a threat to…

The upper chamber of Czech parliament, Senate, has for the first time in the history of the country accused a president of state treachery. At a closed extraordinary session 38 MPs voted in favor of Klaus’s impeachment, whereas 30 members objected. The court may announce its ruling as soon as in the end of March.

According to the Law on Constitutional Court, state treachery means that the president’s actions are aimed against the national sovereignty and integrity, as well as democratic system. As a result, the president should be dismissed from his post and be banned from taking part in presidential elections.

Senate with dominating left forces has voted for obliging the Czech Constitutional Court to check whether Klaus’s decision to amnesty over 6,000 prisoners at the beginning of 2013 corresponded to the country’s main law.

It will be reminded that Klaus announced about the amnesty of nearly one-third of all the Czech prisoners in January in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the country. Because of this ambiguous decision a number of well-known corruption investigations were brought to a halt.

Many prisoners were released as a result of the president’s January measures. However, it was not the decision to free about 7,000 prisoners whose sentence was not longer than one year or cancel all suspended sentences that caused outrage in the Czech Republic. Many Czechs grew outraged more about Klaus’s decree to stop the paper work on the cases which had been investigated for over eight years. With a stroke of pen he stopped some ten sensational investigations into state money theft, bribery, and fraud.

Senate members also accused Klaus of violating the Constitution, reproaching him for refusal to ratify the EU agreements and his unwillingness to approve the candidatures of judges, although court ruling obliged the president to do so. In 2009 Vaclav Klaus was the last of the leaders of EU members countries to sign the Lisbon Treaty meant to reform the European Union.

 The newly elected president Milos Zeman, who will be inaugurated on March 8, reacted harshly to Senate’s decision to impeach Klaus. “I think it is a hysterical reaction, since treason is a term that has nothing to do with amnesty,” reads the statement given to CTK by his representative. “If I were a senator,” Zeman noted, “I would have fought for cancellation of the contradictory amnesty announced by Vaclav Klaus on the New Year’s eve, or, what seems more realistic to me, remove Article 2 of the Constitution which stipulates for stopping any long-time criminal investigations.” Incidentally, Zeman was critical about Klaus’s amnesty from the very beginning.

 Meanwhile, Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas, who represents the Party of Civic Democrats, stated that announcing impeachment to president is equal to an attack at the reputation of the Czech Republic, and apart from that, it is motivated by personal intolerance.

Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg thinks that accusing Klaus of treachery is an “unreasonable step,” because, he admitted, “president is a state institution, so impeachment of a president should be based on really serious grounds.” Schwarzenberg opines that New Year’s amnesty could be unlawful, but it does not mean treason. “At worse, it may be viewed as abuse of power,” Schwarzenberg said.

 At the Constitutional Court Session the upper chamber will be represented by Deputy Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Senator Jiri Dienstbier, one of the initiators of impeachment. In his words, Senate has fulfilled its duty to protect the constitutional principles and cannot keep silent anymore in the situation when Klaus violates the Constitution on a regular basis. “Ignoring of the regulations and law leads to going down to anti-Constitutional path. The Senate should prevent this,” Dienstbier noted.

 Meanwhile, head of the senate committee on the questions of constitution and legislation Miroslav Antl stated, “We want to hear the opinion of the Constitutional Court on what a treason means, and how far has Klaus gone in his ignoring of the recommendations of parliament and fulfillment of the will of the Czech people.”

 Jaroslav Kubera, the leader of a group of senators from the Civic Democratic Party who opposed this decision of Senate, opines that the said voting means that now all kinds of things can happen in the Czech Republic. “Senate has let the genie out of the bottle and the society will be even more divided than ever,” he underlined. Kubera thinks that other countries will pay attention to the fact that the president faces impeachment three days before his presidential term ends. Dienstbier thinks otherwise. In his words, taking into account Klaus’s personality, the international community will understand this step.

 However, some critics compare Senate’s decision with a ritual execution of a chief, whose term of authority is coming to an end. The second and last term of 71-year-old Klaus ends on March 7. If the guilt of the president is proven, after his term in office ends, he will lose the right for wages and benefits.

 However, the Czech press reacted to the impeachment of the president in a most acute way. In particular, newspaper Lidove noviny considers that the Senate has unleashed “a nuclear bomb” with this decision. According to the publication, the Constitutional Court will hardly accept impeachment for consideration because of insufficient ground.

 “However, the weapons were aimed against Milos Zeman, Klaus’s successor, to make him see and show respect to Senate,” Lidove noviny noted. Another Czech publication, Hospodarske noviny, considers that Senate’s decision is a “sheer political kitsch.” Meanwhile, Pravo noted that Senators have simply fulfilled their duty by impeaching the president. They simply showed their belief that president, no matter what a respectful personality he is, is still a simple mortal, not an omnipotent czar and that he should keep to the Constitution and the laws, not be guided by his own desires, Pravo writes. The publication also noted that Senators have in such way reacted to the pressure suffered by voters who feel powerless concerning politicians who do whatever they want, ignoring the Constitution. And Klaus symbolized this type of behavior, Pravo resumes.