PRAGUE (AP) — Czech President Petr Pavel swore in a new justice minister on Tuesday, another step in a political crisis caused by a bitcoin-related scandal.
Pavel appointed Eva Decroix after her predecessor Pavel Blažek resigned from the post on May 30. He was under fire from the opposition because his ministry accepted a donation of bitcoins and sold them for almost 1 billion Czech koruna ($46 million) earlier this year.
Blažek said that he wasn’t aware of any wrongdoing, but didn’t want the four-party coalition government led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala to be harmed by the scandal. Fiala said that he appreciated his resignation and believed that Blažek acted with goodwill.
Blažek was a close ally of Fiala in the government and also in his conservative Civic Democratic Party. The new minister is from the same party.
Decroix said she will order an independent probe into the ministry’s activities in the case.
“The public trust in the institutions and the state is at stake,” Pavel said.
The issue focused on the fact that the bitcoins were donated to the ministry by a person who was previously convicted of drug dealing and other crimes while it was not clear why he did it.
The opposition has accused Blažek of possible money laundering, because it wasn’t clear where the bitcoins originated.
The opposition parties demand the resignation of the entire government and are planning to request a parliamentary no-confidence vote. It could take place later in June.
The issue has been investigated by the national police's organized crime unit.
The scandal is taking place just months before the Oct 3-4 parliamentary election. The main opposition ANO (YES) party led by former populist Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is predicted to win the vote.
Eva Decroix signs an oath while being appointed as new Justice Minister at the Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Czech Republic's President Petr Pavel, right, appoints Eva Decroix, left, as new Justice Minister at the Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Czech Republic's Prime Minister Petr Fiala, left, looks on as Eva Decroix arrives to be appointed as new Justice Minister at the Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A former Polish justice minister who faces prosecution in his homeland over alleged abuse of power said Monday that he has been granted asylum in Hungary.
Zbigniew Ziobro was a key figure in the government led by the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party that ran Poland between 2015 and 2023. That administration established political control over key judicial institutions by stacking higher courts with friendly judges and punishing its critics with disciplinary action or assignments to far-away locations.
Current Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government came to power more than two years ago with ambitions to roll back the changes, but efforts to undo them have been blocked by two successive presidents aligned with the national right.
In October, prosecutors requested the lifting of Ziobro's parliamentary immunity to press charges against him. They allege among other things that Ziobro misused a fund for victims of violence, including for the purchase of Israeli Pegasus surveillance software.
Tusk’s party says Law and Justice used Pegasus to spy illegally on political opponents while in power. Ziobro says he acted lawfully.
Hungary, led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has hosted several politicians close to Law and Justice while Polish authorities were seeking them.
In a lengthy post on X Monday, Ziobro wrote that he had “decided to accept the asylum granted to me by the government of Hungary due to the political persecution in Poland.”
“I have decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland,” he said. “I believe that instead of acquiescing to being silenced and subjected to a torrent of lies — which I would have no opportunity to refute — I can do more by fighting the mounting lawlessness in Poland.”
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Monday that Hungarian authorities have granted asylum to “several” individuals who would face political persecution in Poland, according to his ministry. He declined to specify their names.
In an English-language post on X, Tusk wrote that “the former Minister of Justice(!), Mr. Ziobro, who was the mastermind of the political corruption system, has asked the government of Victor Orbán for political asylum.”
“A logical choice,” he added.
FILE - The leader of the Polish junior coalition partners Zbigniew Ziobro, speaks to reporters alongside in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, file)
