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All summer long there
had been speculation that the coalition government would
fall once its public
finance reform package failed to pass. It looked like an
easy call given the numbers. The Social Democrats and their
partners have a majority of a single vote in parliament
and one of them, Hana Marvanová, was expecting a baby at
any moment. Another member, Josef Hojdar, had been openly
campaigning against the reforms, as were most trade unions.
The teachers' union called for a strike on the first day
of school to protest the government's plan to do away with
the two extra monthly paychecks teachers receive every
year, a perk that dates back to the Communist era. Being
a Czech strike, it came to nothing. Just one-third of the
schools answered the call and then for the first day only,
when the students come, show off their new cell phones
and go home. The labor unions had managed to stage some
protests, but nowhere near the size of those that came
out against the government when President Klaus was premier.
The president had already done his part by vetoing an important
part of the legislation after he said he wouldn't. And
then there were the polls that showed the opposition Civic
Democrats thumping the other parties in a mock election.
Civic chairman Mirek Topolánek was feeling confident the
government's days were numbered until someone asked him
what would happen after it fell. "Why...uh...uh...uh..."
The clueless Topolánek eventually put the word out that
the
Civic Democrats
might support an interim government led by vice-premier
Gross. His interior ministry may be in shambles, but Gross
has managed to maneuver his people into key positions in
and around the government, showing, if nothing else, he's
a keen manipulator. The most obvious example is Jaroslav
Tvrdík, whose defense ministry was also in shambles when
he left it this summer. Tvrdík needed a job and Gross found
him one as head of Czech Airlines, despite the fact that
he never ran a major company before and has limited, very
limited, knowledge of English. Fellow ministers supported
the appointment with the view that the government should
find them cushy jobs once they leave the cabinet. That
way, they won't be tempted to reveal state secrets in some
other capacity. Apparently the idea of civic duty, not
to mention the law, never occurred to them. But the government
definitely wanted to have one of its own at Czech Airlines
because it will be spending money, a lot of money, in the
future on new planes for its fleet. The million-dollar
question is who will supply the planes, French Airbus or
American Boeing. Tvrdík and Gross were strong supporters
of the American intervention in Iraq, but haven't had much
to say about it now that things aren't looking so good
there. Even former president Havel, who couldn't wait to
sign on to the war, is now claiming he has doubts about
when and how it was conducted. His comments go well with
the fact that he's just published a book of fairy tales.
His dear friend Madeleine Albright is also out hawking
a book and taking swipes at the Bush administration while
she's at it. The war was wrong, she insists, because it
never received UN backing. Of course, the air war she and
Clinton waged against Yugoslavia in 1999 bypassed the UN
too, but that was a humanitarian effort, you understand.
Premier ©pidla has proved he can get along with either
side. He returned from a love fest in Washington only to
organize one for Bush nemesis Gerhard Schröder in Prague.
The only people it seems he can't get along with are Czech
politicians. The Communists have made it clear that what
bothers them most about this government is ©pidla himself.
Still, they hinted they were ready to offer enough support
for the reforms to go through simply as a way of winning
over disaffected members of the Social Democrats to their
side. In the end the coalition was able to hold together
and pass most of the reforms intact. Marvanová, who created
so many problems during last year's budget vote, gave birth
before this one and decided to give up her seat to become
a full-time mother. Her replacement proved more accommodating,
and in any case the Civic Democrats found themselves one
vote short. Petr Kott, a former doctor who could easily
pass for a bodyguard, didn't show up for the vote because,
as his own party admitted, he was plastered. It wasn't
a case of him sipping from a flask tucked away beneath
his coat, rather standing in line at the canteen in the
parliamentary building and buying any number of assorted
drinks, all subsidized by the tax payers. The government's
reforms, it would seem, still have a long way to go.
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