Final Word from Tuesday, June 8, 2004
Pavel Telička has gotten where he is by looking out for No. 1. First as a Communist, then as a Czech diplomat, and now as an EU commissioner, he's always known which side his bread is buttered on. Lidové noviny reported on Sat. that Telička is losing support at the foreign ministry because he told MFD that he didn't realize until sometime after the Velvet Revolution that the Communist regime was bad. LN also quoted ex-Deputy Foreign Minister Zdeněk Matějka on March 19 as suggesting that Telička knew in 2001 that Foreign Minister Jan Kavan was involved in the Český dům scandal but, as the official responsible for looking into it, covered up for Kavan to avoid being sacked. A TNS Factum poll found in May that 74.8% of respondents think Telička should represent Czech interests in Brussels. His own interests, though, seem to take top priority.