Final Word from Monday, September 18, 2006
Try as he did, Václav Moravec of Czech TV was unable to get Finance Minister Vlastimil Tlustý to say yesterday whether Mirek Topolánek knew about his visit with Miloš Zeman. The meeting is still throwing Czech politics into turmoil. The question is whether the purpose of the encounter was to get rid of just Jiří Paroubek, or Mirek Topolánek as well. Both Jan Macháček of HN and Alexandr Mitrofanov of Právo suggested that a Tlustý-Zeman plan for eliminating Paroubek could allow Topolánek to win the crucial backing of a few MPs from ČSSD. However, after Tlustý's performance yesterday and an interview today in Pražský deník, the bigger question is whether Tlustý isn't aiming to get the PM job for himself. Talk about turmoil. ČSSD's voters like Tlustý about as much as ODS's like David Rath, and Tlustý as PM would bring anything but stability to Czech politics. [Czech Republic Parliament Hospodářské noviny prime minister premier Television Otázky Václav Moravce]