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