Final Word from Thursday, June 22, 2006
Michael Friedman, a controversial German talk-show host, took aim at SPD last week for "lying" in the German elections about VAT. SPD had said it wouldn't support an increase and then agreed to a 3-point hike. It was a "political" decision, reasoned Rainer Wend of SPD. Friedman called him Pinocchio and wanted to add a few centimeters to his nose. In the CR, ODS and ČSSD have sworn that a grand coalition isn't coming. Some observers expect them to avoid it by agreeing to a single-party ODS minority cabinet. Others see the sudden talk of a minority ODS government as merely adding a few more centimeters to the Pinocchio noses that ODS and ČSSD are growing. If ODS and ČSSD are indeed serving us a bald-faced lie and intend to form a grand coalition, Mirek Topolánek and Jiří Paroubek should go to Berlin and compare nose lengths with their grand-coalition counterparts.[Czech Republic value-added tax CDU/CDS