Playing with Fire

In order to considerably curb unnecessary expenses, a director of the Košice Tax Authority halted an over-priced rent contract set up during the previous government and solved it by opting for a cheaper one. 

So far so good one would say. Were it not that the cheaper contract appeared to be a construction which de facto was having ties to people close to the ruling SDKU party (not to mention a dodgy Cyprus based company, which is a no-go for politics).

Slovakia, partly a bit overly-sensitive to corruption scandals thanks to former prime minister Fico and friends, was crying out their disbelief and prime minister Radičová was put in a fairly unpleasant position. 

The current situation is thus, that Finance Minister Mikloš opposed Radičová by refusing to sack his tax director and Radičová now caught in a power struggle behind the SDKU stage.

What is sad about the whole matter; in order to bring new, cleaner, decent, more transparent politics to Slovakia has become an embarrassing farce, in which the coalition from the very beginning has failed to effectively communicate, and being stuck in a situation, where the majority feels gravely disappointed.

Mikloš is definitively playing with fire, and the most probable outcome of the whole mess might be the return of the dreaded politbureau chief Fico. For what? Was it worth it?

Too much is at stake, but the damage - even if the coalition would continue - is immense. The other option, I dare not to think of.