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"I think that he (Karasek) slightly overestimated his fores and our mistake was that we overestimated his forces," Paroubek told journalists in London today. Paroubek said he considers Karasek an honest man, but said he is not experienced in the financial sphere.

Paroubek said he thinks that the state does not have to spend hundreds of millions crowns, but rather dozens of millions to settle the Lety camp issue. He said that the government will find money to buy out the pig farm in its budget reserve, when he reacted to the information that the draft budget for next year does not count with the matter.

He said the delicate issue could be solved in mid-2006. Karasek said he does not know what Parbouek bases his calculations on. "If really only dozens of million crowns were needed, I would be the most happy person in the world and will bow to him and his financial experts. I take into consideration the calculations that were made years ago and that we have now had checked with the Agriculture Ministry," Karasek told CTK.

"The new pig farm of this capacity cannot be built for less than 300 million crowns. But if Mr Prime Minister manages this, I will only be glad," said Karasek, deputy for the junior government Freedom Union-DEU. Paroubek said he wants to soon propose the formation of an inter-ministerial group to deal with the pig farm in Lety.

"I will not support such fanciful ideas, including of the government commissioner (Karasek), who is definitely an honest man, but inexperienced in the financial sphere," Paroubek said. Karasek said he welcomes the creation of the commission and that he deals with the Lety case voluntarily, often "after work." The abolition or relocation of the large-scale pig far from the site where 326 people died has been called for by representatives of certain Romany organisations as well as some politicians for years.
(The Prague Daily Monitor, ms/dr)
www.praguemonitor.com

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Czech Prime Minister Announces Intentions to Purchase Pig Farm at Lety
The Czech daily newspaper, Lidove Noviny, announced today that Jirí Paroubek will submit, as part of the national budget for 2006, a request for the funds necessary to buy the Lety pig farm. Although the Czech government had opened negotiations with the company AGPI, who runs the pig farm in Lety, before this announcement, a concrete plan was included in the projected national budget for 2006. However, such promises made ahead of important elections coming up in June of 2006 make the Prime Minister’s declaration seem more like an attempt to raise his popularity rather than an honest attempt at reconciliation.
column: News | date: 4. 11. 2005