Final Word from Monday, August 6, 2018
It might not technically qualify as contempt of Parliament for Zdeněk Bakala to refuse to appear before the OKD commission, but a clever legislator could find a way to claim publicly that § 336 of the criminal code (contempt of court) applies. Likewise, Bakala doesn't use the word "contempt" to describe what he thinks some members of the commission feel toward him, but he comes close. In his open letter to the commission, he cited two members, Chair Lukáš Černohorský of the Pirates, and Václav Klaus Jr. of ODS, as being biased. He could have gone further. He could have pointed out that another member, Lubomír Zaorálek, has publicly called him a crook (gauner). Or that six of the nine members are from the Moravian-Silesian Region, which is at the OKD epicenter. Bakala could have also explained what he means by saying that Miloš Zeman, as ex-PM, is being investigated with regard to OKD. He was the PM between the two OKD privatizations by Václav Klaus and Vladimír Špidla. Did Zeman somehow play a role in the sales, too? Or is Bakala merely saying this as a way to show his contempt? [Czech Republic Para. 336 Karbon Invest]
Glossary of difficult words
contempt - the feeling that a person or a thing is worthless or beneath consideration; disregard for something that should be considered;
contempt of court - the offense of being disobedient to or disrespectful of a court of law and its officers;
epicenter - the central point of something, typically a difficult or unpleasant situation.