ODS removes Filip Dvořák from its Prague 1 candidate list over 230-million-crown inheritance scandal

ODS leadership has unanimously decided to remove politician Filip Dvořák from its candidate list in Prague 1, party chairman Martin Kupka announced Friday after an executive council meeting.

"A swift, clear, and even unanimous decision by the ODS executive council: Filip Dvořák will not be on the ODS candidate list for Prague 1," Kupka said. According to him, the local district party organization in Prague 1 has been instructed to prepare a new candidate list without Dvořák's name by July 24. If this is not done, the regional party council for Prague will be given the authority to do so.

The scandal was triggered by an inheritance worth more than 230 million crowns that Dvořák received from his father, Karel Dvořák. The estate includes real estate in Prague and Špindlerův Mlýn, diamonds, and a yacht moored in Croatia. According to fellow party members, the politician has never been able to clearly explain the origin of these funds.

Last week, ODS leadership had already called on Dvořák to resign voluntarily, but he refused, saying that the local party branch in Prague 1 continued to support him and had not removed him from the candidate list. He remained on the list even after the party presidium decided on Tuesday that his continued participation in the elections could damage the party's reputation. The presidium backed the idea of his removal at that time, but the final decision rested with the executive council.

"Praguers will not see Filip Dvořák's name on the ballot for local government elections," Kupka concluded on Friday.

Dvořák himself had previously spoken out sharply against the party leadership's actions. "I consider the party chairman's pressure demanding my resignation based on newspaper articles to be a pointless precedent that will only harm ODS itself in the future," he said on Tuesday in response to the call for his resignation.

The ODS statutes gave party leadership several options for removing Dvořák from the elections, including dissolving the branch that nominated him or expelling the politician from the party altogether. However, neither scenario was ultimately applied — Dvořák remains a member of ODS, having only lost his place on the candidate list.

Where his father, Karel Dvořák, a retired gynecologist, obtained a fortune worth hundreds of millions of crowns remains unclear: he was not listed as being involved in any company where he could have earned such sums. Filip Dvořák himself has only stated that "he has always independently managed his professional and financial affairs." Notably, questions about the origin of this money had arisen before — several years ago, it was already surprising how an 85-year-old pensioner could afford to purchase properties worth a total of 33 million crowns.

By the Around Prague newsroom