This past week, Petra Kvitova should have been basking in the glow of her second Wimbledon triumph and the Czech nation should have been celebrating along with her.
Instead, a Czech politician questioned her patriotism and a man has been arrested for making threats against “a publicly known person” in a phone call. That person, it seems, is the newly crowned Wimbledon champion.
The threatening phone call apparently came after public criticism of Kvitova for her decision to move from the Czech Republic to Monaco to avoid higher taxation.
“I think that we should all have a long and hard think about the fact that if someone leaves the Czech Republic and becomes a member of another state, then they should lose their Czech citizenship,” said Stanislav Huml, a Czech member of parliament.
Does a person deserve to be stripped of his or her citizenship merely because they choose to live in another country to save taxes? Does it make them any less patriotic than the residents?
Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek both live in Monaco, and both have been key members of the Czech Davis Cup team, champions the past two years.
Kvitova has not broken any laws as the country allows citizens to avoid taxes if they set up residency in another country and spend more than half a year living there.
Huml perhaps sought his 15 minutes of fame when he made that statement, but he has done a huge disservice to a champion.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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