This period of time is defined by two electoral terms with the government of two ODS prime ministers, Mirek Topolánek and Petr Nečas. We consider the beginning to be the formation of the first Topolánek government in the summer of 2006 and the end of this period to be the fall of the Nečas government after the Šlacht raid on the Government Office before the summer of 2013. Although the two electoral periods are different in many respects, new trends in the world of corruption can be observed in these seven years. We see a clear shift from theft by government protagonists to the installation of strange, often second-rate, figures in official positions, statutory and control bodies of state-owned companies or government posts, with the actual centre of gravity of power lying somewhere else entirely. In other words, a completely new system was created, with the centres of power moving to often very strange places – to the offices of various shibras, godfathers and other howlers. These godfathers, characterized by their backgrounds as extortionists, then “established” loyal characters – they simply helped them into their new positions, and then they were to obey their godfather and repay the original deposit to the godfather by various means.
The above characterization of the newly widespread trend is not meant to suggest that it is an entirely new phenomenon, nor that there were no figures outside the system. As mentioned in the previous chapter, such a Stanislav Gross was also clearly fulfilling the wishes of people to whom he had to be grateful for something. However, during the reigns of Social Democratic prime ministers, corrupt tendencies were mainly focused on filling their own or party pockets. After the fractious elections of 2006, the described system of nomination of figures, usually nationally unknown, puppets with strings leading to a leader with his own interests and potential profit, which was to be supplied by the led figures, already prevailed.
The second electoral period, from 2010 to 2013, to some extent further deepened this system, as some of the godfather structures started to establish new political entities. Thus, in this period, the situation shifted even further towards the described trend of cronyism in favour of background figures, with even greater suppression of visible corruption between the two corruptors.
For the purposes of this chapter, we have therefore divided the new trends described earlier into the following articles. First of all, we will recapitulate the political developments that led to the outlined arrangement. Next, we will catalogue the godfathers, shills and other leaders and their puppets. We also need to show what territories the various howlers controlled and how territorial disputes were resolved, how trans-regional projects or matters of common interest were clarified, and what the culture of communication was among the “elites” of the time. Before showing what trends were manifested in the Slovak corruption scene at a comparable time, we should show the phenomenon of the biggest corruption project to date, which was called Věci veřejné.
