Final Word from Monday, May 16, 2005
After the Paroubek government won a confidence vote on Fri., KDU-ČSL Chair Miroslav Kalousek boasted that it was the Christian Democrats who had argued from the beginning that the best solution to the crisis was to replace the prime minister. Kalousek was quick to blow his own horn, but his ship is sinking. His party failed to win anything from the crisis, except Gross's scalp. It lost the chairmanship of the budget committee, will likely lose the antitrust office, and didn't go up in the polls. Kalousek himself got an absolute grilling on TV Nova's "Kotel" show and won the "honor" in a contest sponsored by Czech TV of being ranked the fifth-biggest scoundrel in Czech history (after ex-Communist leader Klement Gottwald, Gross, Klaus and Vladimír Železný). In such company, it's little consolation for Kalousek that he finished three places behind Gross. [Czech Republic Jiří Paroubek Václav Klaus Stanislav Gross Czech Television]