The national board of the ANO movement yesterday expelled ten Brno city councillors who are sitting in coalition with the Civic Democrats (ODS), citing the ODS bitcoin scandal. The proposal to expel the ten councillors was submitted by ANO’s South Moravian branch at the beginning of December, ANO spokesman Martin Vodicka told CTK.
ANO’s leader in South Moravia, Alena Schillerova, who is also the vice-chair of the national party and the new coalition’s proposed finance minister, said ANO should leave the coalition with ODS in Brno because of the reputational risk.
Former Czech justice minister Pavel Blazek, a long-standing key member of ODS in Brno and a close ally of Brno Mayor Marketa Vankova, was forced to resign from the cabinet and suspend his ODS membership after the Justice Ministry accepted a donation of bitcoins which were apparently the proceeds of criminal activity. Within the deal, the donor, who had already been convicted for operating a darknet marketplace, was seemingly attempting to get access to further bitcoins gained from his criminal activities.
“Brno ODS has been burdened by a huge number of scandals, especially in recent years,” said Schillerova. “I could name the cocaine case of Mayor Vankova, the serious case of the allocation of apartments, but especially the billion-crown bitcoin scandal, in which faces from Brno ODS played a key role, led by Pavel Blazek. Such things cannot be overlooked, and my colleagues unfortunately prioritized their positions over the values and reputation of the ANO movement. That is why they had to leave the movement.”
ANO’s Brno assembly members tried to convince the ANO leadership by presenting the projects they are working on in Brno and hope to complete. They also criticized the fact that no one had reproached them for their coalition with ODS three years ago after the local elections.
The coalition at the Brno City Assembly, formed by ODS with TOP 09, ANO, the Christian Democrats, the Mayors and Independents (STAN) and the Social Democrats, held 42 seats in the 55-member assembly, and would have retained its majority even if all 13 ANO assembly members had left.
Three of ANO’s representatives withdrew from the coalition on the request of the national party. The remaining 10, who have now been expelled, included deputy mayor and current head of Brno ANO, René Černý, another deputy mayor, Karin Podivinská, and city councillor for spatial planning, Petr Bořecký, as well as assembly members Kateřina Jarošová, Daniel Struž, Vít Prýgl, Pavel Kříž, Karel Kalivoda, Alena Gruberová and Sabina Benešová.
