Cleaning up

ČSSD has toughened its stance on the huge environmental cleanup contract and now wants it canceled. Vice Chair Milan Urban of ČSSD said that he would prefer to break up the contract into individual jobs of similar specifications. ČSSD isn't about to stand by as TOP 09 uses the murky deal to build up a war chest that could be used to eat into ČSSD's own election result. Seeing the writing on the wall, Miroslav Kalousek of TOP 09 is also regretfully backing away from the gold mine of priceless sludge. Kalousek's mascot, Karel Schwarzenberg, has complained that the contract was tailor-made for a single company. That would be J&T, with its ties to Martin Roman of ČEZ. Insiders say that the cleanup contract was a Roman deal from the get-go. By putting its foot down, ČSSD is doing something Mirek Topolánek of ODS has never been able to do: It's telling Roman who the boss is. [Czech Republic ecological pollution indemnities]