Booze, bullets and Budvar
These days, Czech citizens could be forgiven for thinking that Czech Government is an oxymoron – a contradiction in terms – as the country reels from a scandal over adulterated spirits, an attack on the country’s president and a Budweiser Budvar audit which the government is desperate to bury.
Consider this: although the first victims from methanol poisoning were taken to hospital in early September 2012 and the death toll kept on climbing rapidly to over 25, it took the Czech authorities two weeks before they issued a ban on the sale of spirits with more than 20 percent of alcohol, and almost four weeks before they arrested two suspects.
The total ban of the sales of spirits with more than 20 percent of alcohol was in force for two weeks. Exports of Czech spirits, valued at EUR 80 million last year, were also stopped following EU pressure. To date, a total of 85 people have been poisoned, although at the end of September, the worst health scare for decades in the EU member country of 10.5 million continued to bring new patients to hospitals.
It is supposed that some 15,000 litres of poisoned alcohol are still in the network.
On 27 September 2012, the Czech Health Minister Leos Heger eased prohibition, allowing the sales of hard liquor produced in 2011 and before as well as bottles with a proven origin of spirit, or a "birth certificate."
Exports of older spirits and those with a proven origin are possible again.
Minister Heger said further that the rules for handling hard liquor will be valid for several months during which legislation on the production and distribution of alcohol will be amended.
He also said that all open bottles should be liquidated. The owners of bottles with rare and expensive spirits that have been opened can have the contents tested.
While some distilleries have shut down production, costing them hundreds of thousands euros a day in revenue, home stills were able to keep running, market observers say.
In the meantime, police have arrested two men who could face up to 20 years in prison for distributing the methanol, which was meant for windscreen wiper fluid but instead was used to mix vodka and fruit-flavoured spirits.
The methanol scare is Europe’s biggest single poisoning case since adulterated alcohol killed 68 people in Estonia in 2001.
In the Czech Republic, it is believed that moonshine accounts for up to 25 percent of spirits sold. The government, criticised after reports that police had been tipped off in the past but rarely took action, says the share is about 10 percent of the 55 million litre per year market.
The reason why moonshine is so popular and the two thugs could easily get their methanol into the market is money. Taxes, hiked in 2010 to help the budget during the global financial crisis, can make up over 80 percent of the retail price of cheap spirits brands, it was reported.
The Czech authorities’ ineptitude came to the fore yet again on 28 September 2012 when some young communist sympathiser walked up to Czech President Vaclav Klaus at a public event and shot him in the arm with a toy gun. What’s more, Klaus’ security entourage let him walk away, arresting him only after he had given a TV interview about why he shot the president.
Mr Klaus was taken to hospital but suffered only minor bruising. His security detail has come in for harsh criticism for allowing the man to get so close to Mr Klaus.
Amidst all this, the businessman Richard Hunt still managed to get a copy of the controversial Budweiser Budvar audit – or "public control exercise" as they now call it. He told BRAUWELT International that before sending it to him officials in the Ministry of Agriculture – the ministry which controls the state-owned brewery Budweiser Budvar – had removed every single financial figure, and the name of every single supplier to Budvar, including the name of his own company.
Mr Hunt said that he plans to appeal against this level of redaction, although he is aware that he probably won’t get the figures, as officials will argue that these figures do not concern the use of public money and therefore the Trade Secrets protection overrides the Freedom of Information law.
"However, what is more important is that it looks like the government is trying to bury the audit and pretend it never happened. Certainly the Budvar team seem to have breathed a sigh of relief although from my point of view it is a disgrace that they were put through five months of disruption for no good reason," Mr Hunt added.
From the above it is no surprise that Czechs have recently revived the old joke name of "Absurdistan" for their country.
