Green machine

The new phenomenon on the Czech political scene are the Greens. They're winning the protest vote, and their approval rating has jumped well past the 5% threshold needed for gaining representation in Parliament, mainly to the detriment of ČSSD. Premier Jiří Paroubek suggested in Právo today that the Greens have intentionally been promoted as a way to allow ODS to form a center-right coalition. If the new Greens, under Chairman Martin Bursík, are in a sense an ODS invention, as Paroubek suggests, it would be ODS's biggest election coup so far. A risky one, too, though. With his popularity on the wane, Paroubek smells blood, and it's his own. If there's any inappropriate relationship between ODS and the Green Party, Paroubek will use his bloodhounds and wiretaps to track it down. A last-minute revelation might be enough to tip the scales back in ČSSD's favor. [Czech Republic opinion polls]