Rebels have always appeared in political parties now and then.
However, in the mid-1990s, when for example opposition CSSD Czech CSSD chairman calls on Wolf to give up mandate of MP ...
MP leaves Czech opposition Social Democratic Party deputy group ...
Prague City Hall bans march of rightist extremists ...
Czech Communists to back CSSD's no confidence vote proposal ... deputy Jozef Wagner backed the centre-right government's budget bill, he gave clear reasons for his step and let himself expelled from the CSSD, Jiri Leschtina writes in the daily. "Since the mid-2006 elections, however, we have witnessed a strange series of little known CSSD deputies one after another suddenly jumping out of the CSSD deputies' group and starting to complain about the horrible atmosphere in the group. Who, however, should consider this credible in a situation where neither Milos Melcak, nor Michal Pohanka, nor Evzen Snitily nor Petr Wolf have presented a single example, a single protagonist of the horrible persecution they were allegedly faced with?" Leschtina asks. True, CSSD chairman Jiri Paroubek's threats that all CSSD deputies who would vote for the U.S. radar on Czech soil would be expelled from the party are nothing but gross pressure, Leschtina continues. However, even if Wolf wanted to vote for the radar, why has he voluntarily branded himself a traitor worth despising? It would have been more comprehensible if he had himself expelled from the CSSD over his firm stand on the radar, thus acquiring the image of a martyr, Leschtina says. In view of the repeating scenario [of defecting CSSD deputies], it is beyond any doubt that someone is operating behind the parliamentary scene and successfully lures deputies away from the CSSD for the government, Leschtina writes. By poaching for deputies, the government may preserve its majority in the lower house for some more time, but at the cost of a further decline of people's confidence in politics and in the sense of elections, Leschtina concludes. Petr Wolf's defection from the CSSD is bad news for the CSSD, as this defector, the fourth already, reflects the quality of the party ranks and unveils gaps in its system of nomination [of election candidates], Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in the daily Pravo. CSSD chairman Jiri Paroubek and CSSD deputies' group chairman Michal Hasek's apology on Sunday for the personal moral failure of Wolf and other CSSD defectors, and their vow to draw a lesson from it ahead of the next elections, came too belatedly, Mitrofanov writes. The acquisition of Wolf is bad news for the senior governing Civic Democrats (ODS) as well. The CSSD defectors have all acted according to the same scenario. All of them headed from the CSSD to the alliance with the ODS and all were praised by the ODS as honest people who do not want to suffer under Paroubek and [CSSD deputy chairman David] Rath's dictatorship any longer, Mitrofanov writes. "Wolf's defection is bad news for the Americans. It is to be Wolf who is to decide on the installation of the U.S. military radar base in the Czech Republic, isn't it?" Mitrofanov asks. This can be judged by Wolf's recent statement that U.S. Secretary of State [Condoleezza Rice] and U.S. General Henry Obering are to arrive in Prague soon and he, Wolf, will be glad to meet them, Mitrofanov writes. Wolf has a chance to refute the speculation, if he finally did not support the radar project in parliament, Mitrofanov concludes. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has neutralised the trouble of his Finance Minister Jan Pociatek in a perfect way which largely explains why Fico's Smer-Social Democracy has been permanently popular with more than 40 percent of Slovaks, Tomas Nemecek writes elsewhere in Hospodarske noviny. Pociatek has come under suspicion of having leaked to Slovak financial tycoons the information about the EC's plan to change the Slovak crown's central parity towards the euro in late May. There are no proofs or recordings to prove it, only indirect evidence. Three days before the change, Pociatek visited the tycoons at a private yacht in Monaco to "discuss weather," Nemecek writes. A Slovak joke adds that Pociatek told the financiers that "in three days the temperature would reach 30.1260," Nemecek says. It is clear that all enquiries into the case will end inconclusively, as did previous similar cases, even those where more evidence was at hand, Nemecek writes. Like a strict father Fico showed "a yellow card" to Pociatek and said he would make up his mind on whether to dismiss him. Thereby he took the topic away from the opposition before the latter could use it to score political points. Fico said that Pociatek's fault was not the leak of information but his meeting with the financiers, Nemecek poins out.
(Ceske Noviny)
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