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He pulled it off. With a bare one-vote
majority in parliament, Vladimír Spidla put together
a coalition government consisting of his liberal Social
Democrats and the center-right Populists and Unionists.
Negotiations had stalled over the growing budget deficit,
with the Unionists officially calling for more fiscal restraint.
Unofficially, it was their leader, Hana Marvanova, making
a play for the Justice Ministry. She got neither the post
nor the fiscal restraint. The lion's share of cabinet positions
went to the Social Democrats, including a few holdovers
from the previous government. But Spidla made it clear that
the Zeman era was over by naming Lubomir Zaoralek as the
new Chairman of Parliament. He's the man Zeman had once
called a "moocher" for daring to come out against
the cronyism of his administration. Klaus fought to retain
the post of chairman, but had to settle for two of his deputies
getting vice-chairs. Marvanova also got a vice-chair, since
Spidla still needs the meager showings of her party to form
his government. Of the three other vice-chairs created,
one went to Populist Jan Kasal, whose career seems none
the worse after injuring a woman in a drunk driving incident,
and another to Vojtech Filip, the first Communist to assume
a leadership position in government since 1989. That is,
if a vice-chair can be called a leadership position. In
the last parliament there were only three of them and none,
to use the famous expression, was worth a pitcher of warm
spit. These chairs only serve the purpose of indulging party
leaders with perks like more pay, limousines and the indescribable
honor of telling others they are vice-chairs. And Spidla
finds he has to be even more indulging now that the first
scandal is already upon us. In what is one of the wildest
stories to hit this country in years, the police arrested
Karel Srba, deputy to former Foreign Minister Jan Kavan,
on charges of trying to organize a contract killing. Last
year Srba was forced out of office after a reporter revealed
he had negotiated an illegal sale of government property
abroad. Apparently Srba wanted to get even, but the drug
addict hired to hit the reporter went to the police instead.
A quick investigation turned up a shopping bag in Srba's
car with 30 million crowns ($1 million) stashed inside it
and a luxurious villa well beyond the means of a public
servant. Who knows, maybe he made all the extra money from
his work as a spy with Army intelligence. Actually the Army
was ordered to sever its ties with him last year, but nobody
got around to doing the paperwork. Also charged in planning
the hit was Srba's advisor from his foreign ministry days,
a businesswoman who began telling all kinds of stories about
kickbacks at the ministry. A couple million for this job,
several million for that one. The one that cost Srba his
job went out over the signature of his former boss, who
is now the chairman of the UN's general session. Like Kasal,
Kavan has also used parliamentary immunity to beat a drunk
driving rap. He's survived allegations of cooperating with
the former secret police, of organizing a campaign to discredit
his predecessor as foreign minister. Spidla has given him
the benefit of the doubt so far, if only because Kavan is
also an MP. Without his seat, there goes that one-vote majority.
Also on the police blotter is another well-known escape
artist. Vladimir ®elezný reported that one of his paintings
has gone missing from the heavily guarded Golden Goose Gallery
in Prague. ®elezný had just thwarted another attempt to
remove him as the director of crass TV Nova and now this
happens. The painting, Chagall's "Jacob's Ladder",
nearly got ®elezný locked up for failing to pay customs
duties when he brought the picture to the Czech Republic
in 1998. He beat the rap then by insisting the painting
wasn't his. And now it is. Or was. Apparently only he really
knows. It was a better month for ex-Communists. Former secret
police henchman Alois Grebenicek got yet another stay from
his judge in the case the government has tried to bring
against him for the last FIVE YEARS! Former premier Lubomir
Strougal saw charges that he quashed an investigation into
three murders committed by the same secret police dropped
for good. Naturally, he had nothing but good things to say
about his judge. And finally there is the curious case of
singer Helena Vondrackova. She's suing critic Jan Rejzek
for writing that she owed her success to the Communist music
mafia. After a lower court dismissed the case on a technical
ground, her lawyers did some homework and managed to get
a higher court to rule in her favor. The court ordered Rejzek
to apologize to the immortal Helena for using the word "mafia"
in his article about her. Her connection to the Communists
was never in doubt, but the court declared that "mafia"
implies an illegal business and Rejzek went too far in using
it. Maybe he should play it safe next time and write an
article about the foreign ministry instead.
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