Between a red and a hard place

The Communists stepped forward yesterday in Parliament to help ČSSD recall Jiřina Musílková as CEO of VZP health insurer. Such scenes are becoming so predictable that it seems there's already a minority ČSSD government backed by the Communists. President Václav Klaus indicated in HN last week that he wouldn't institutionalize this set-up after the elections. Ex- Premier Stanislav Gross said on Czech TV that ODS is forcing ČSSD in this direction by its policy of "zero tolerance" for ČSSD's proposals. Other ČSSD members say that Jiří Paroubek is edging closer to the Communists mainly as a way to extort favorable terms from ODS for a grand coalition. Some people in ČSSD say that Paroubek intends to offer ODS only 30% of the seats in a ČSSD-ODS coalition cabinet. This would make ODS think long and hard about how far it is willing to go to stop the red threat. [Czech Republic Communist Party KSČM Czech Television Václav Moravec Všeobecná zdravotní pojišťovna]