Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s Civic Democratic Get together withstood a fourth try to topple their authorities in three years — this time with opposition events uniting in opposition to them over a $45 million Bitcoin scandal.
The scandal facilities round a 1 billion Czech koruna ($45 million) Bitcoin (BTC) donation made to the Ministry of Justice on Might 27 by Tomáš Jiřikovský, a person beforehand convicted of drug trafficking, weapons offenses, and embezzlement.
The no-confidence movement introduced by Czech opposition events ANO, SPD and the Pirates acquired solely 94 votes, seven shy of the 101 wanted to cross. The vote got here after greater than 24 hours of debate in Parliament, in line with a report from České Noviny on Monday.
No-confidence votes are made when an individual or opposition celebration believes the present management is not in a position to govern successfully.
Whereas Fiala’s celebration survived the no-confidence vote, the controversy provides to rising issues over how authorities officers are getting concerned in crypto-related actions which may be conflicting with their duties.
Current controversies embody US President Donald Trump’s cashing in on his lengthy listing of crypto ventures and Argentine President Javier Milei’s involvement within the Libra token scandal.
Czech PM admits errors had been made
Fiala mentioned the $45 million Bitcoin donation may have been prevented and acknowledged that the incident has shaken up public confidence in his celebration.
The Civic Democratic Get together will “take duty for moral misconduct,” Fiala mentioned in a Czech-English translated assertion from České Noviny’s report.
Nevertheless, he accused the opposition events of utilizing the talk to “throw dust, insults and lies” at his celebration in a put up on X on Wednesday.
We have now had one other vote of mistrust of the federal government. It turned out as anticipated and the federal government stood the vote.
The opposition used the assembly as all the time – to throw dust, insults and lies. On the similar time, we realized from Andrej Babiš that he actually doesn’t need any data and he isn’t all for any audit. IN… pic.twitter.com/ogUqhLeizZ
– Petr Fiala (@p_fiala) June 18, 2025
The opposite three no-confidence votes in opposition to the Civic Democratic Get together spanned between September 2022 and October 2023, regarding points associated to power, inflation and spying.
Newly appointed justice minister to probe the Bitcoin donation
The incident led to former Justice Minister Pavel Blažek’s resignation on Might 30, whereas Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura can also be dealing with strain to resign amid claims that he knew of the donation.
On June 10, Czech President Petr Pavel swore in Eva Decroix as the brand new minister of justice, who promised to order an unbiased probe into the ministry’s actions.
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She has since mentioned that the Ministry of Justice, underneath her management, would “present cooperation within the investigation of the donation case.”
Particulars of the controversial Bitcoin donation
Jiřikovský provided the Ministry of Justice round a 3rd of his crypto pockets — 1,561 Bitcoin — as a donation, approved by a court docket ruling that returned his beforehand seized gadgets.
Nevertheless, Jiřikovský — who was sentenced in 2017 and launched in 2021 — was additionally beforehand accountable for one other 3,855.15 Bitcoin tied to the illicit web site Nucleus Market.
Tech professional Jiří Berger, who was in attendance when Jiřikovský opened the pockets with 1,561 Bitcoin, mentioned that they can’t entry the bigger stash of three,855.15 Bitcoin attributable to it being saved on older tech.
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