Final Word from Monday, July 15, 2002
Designated Premier Vladimír Špidla said in Právo on Sat. that he didn't want Ivan Pilip of US-DEU in the cabinet because he was at one time a significant representative of ODS and one of Klaus' ministers. The recent elections, Špidla said, brought a clean break with the politics of the 1990s, and people connected to that period wouldn't be credible enough at representing a different political concept. Also on Sat., Špidla said on TV Prima that his government can't sweep the "transformational costs" under the rug the way the Klaus cabinets did. Designated Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has said Pilip could play a major role at Česká konsolidační agentura, where these transformational costs are being stored. If Špidla believes that Pilip helped sweep these costs under the rug, it'll be hard to justify putting him in charge of uncovering them.