Final Word from Thursday, April 28, 2011

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Yesterday's decision by the Constitutional Court to order theCzech finance ministry to pay the full construction-savingssubsidy for last year is being presented as possibly good newsfor solar investors too. They hope that the Court will nowstrike down a special tax that was imposed on them after theyhad already made their investment decisions. Finance MinisterMiroslav Kalousek told HN that he is convinced that the Courtcan't rule in favor of the solar investors, but he added that, aswe have seen, the Court is capable of saying anything. Whattaxpayers should probably fear more than a rather unpredictableConstitutional Court is a rather predictable finance minister.There are whispers of some sort of settlement with solarinvestors, whether out of court or not, that allows everyoneto win - Kalousek, the investors, the politician-investors, thebanks - everyone of course except the taxpayers. Such an outcomeis almost inevitable when, in the famous words of KarelSchwarzenberg, the best poacher is hired as the gamekeeper.