Final Word from Friday, October 15, 2010
MFD reported two weeks ago that ABL security agency had spied on a Prague municipal politician in 2006. Transport Minister Vít Bárta of VV, who owned ABL at the time, called the story nonsense but never explained whose private eyes had dug up all that apparently real (but harmless) "dirt." Martin Fendrych of Týden is no doubt right when he says that this scandal will go nowhere. PM Petr Nečas helped lay it to rest, telling TV Prima that no illegal activity on the part of ABL was proven. Nečas's comment is another example of how the state, when politics or special interests are involved, can decide on innocence or guilt without an investigation, trial or verdict. Voters might not be so easily hoodwinked. What the ABL scandal did achieve, it seems, is that VV won't be a significant force in this weekend's Prague elections. Which is perhaps just what it was meant to achieve, no more no less.[Czech Republic Věci veřejné transportation MF Dnes]
Glossary of difficult words
private eye - a private investigator;
dirt - gossip, esp. information about someone's activities or private life that could prove damaging if revealed;
to lay to rest - to bury a body in a grave; to soothe and dispel fear, anxiety, grief or a similar unpleasant emotion;
to hoodwink - to deceive or trick someone.