Final Word from Friday, November 9, 2007
ODS seems to be the "crystal cleanest" of the political parties at the moment. ČSSD has the pump-and-dump adventures of Stanislav Gross hanging over it, plus Jiří Paroubek's mysterious millions; the Greens lost their education minister by trying to corner part of the EU-funding market; and KDU has its national hero, Jiří Čunek, to keep us all amused. ODS is mainly escaping the spotlight, but ČSSD is retaliating by blaming ODS for all the recent financial shenanigans. If only ODS had agreed to tighten the asset-declaration rules years ago, ČSSD claims, today's scandals could have never occurred! And now the ODS-led government wants to weaken the police's ability to go through bank accounts even more, ČSSD adds. It's all sour grapes. ODS was always better at long-term financial planning, and the other parties are simply paying the price for being careless in this key aspect of big-money politics.[Czech Republic KDU-ČSL European Union Bohuslav Sobotka František Bublan]