Final Word from Friday, November 21, 2008
With six weeks to go until the CR takes over as EU president, the stakes are rising for the country's vice PM for economics. Oops. The CR has no vice PM for economics. Mirek Topolánek hasn't appointed one yet. Topolánek mainly wants the economics czar to tackle domestic reforms, but there's little doubt he would also play a key role in formulating the CR's response to the global crisis as EU president. If Topolánek isn't careful, his predecessor as EU head, Nicolas Sarkozy, will steal the CR's thunder in this respect. Sarkozy and Tony Blair have called a meeting of world leaders in Paris for Jan. 8-9. Topolánek can appoint a relative lightweight to the vice PM post to avoid a repeat of the domestic politicking that brought down Martin Jahn, or he can pull an Obama and recruit a heavyweight rival like Vladimír Dlouhý who would make himself heard. The question is whether EU leaders would listen to someone who has worked for one of the very U.S. banks that they consider to be at the root of their financial problems.[Czech Republic Sachs European Union United States of America]
Glossary of difficult words
Goldman Sachs - U.S. bank that is closely linked to the Bush administration and for which Vladimír Dlouhý acts as a global adviser;
to steal someone's thunder - to win praise for oneself by preempting someone else's attempt to make an impression;
lightweight - a person with little importance or influence in a particular sphere;
Martin Jahn - former vice PM for economics;
to pull an Obama - Obama made news by speaking of the practice used by Abraham Lincoln of appointing rivals to key positions;
heavyweight - a person with influence or importance in a given sphere;
Dlouhý - Jan Macháček of Respekt.cz was the first to mention Dlouý in print as a possible Czech representative to the EU on financial issues.