Havel's new generation

In June 1998, Václav Havel called for a velvet exchange of current political leaders for young politicians such as Vladimír Mlynář, Cyril Svoboda, Michal Lobkowicz, Martin Bursík and Stanislav Gross. A few months later, he supported Petra Buzková as a possible presidential candidate. Last year, he took sides with fortysomething Lubomír Zaorálek. It's noteworthy that four of Havel's favorite young politicians are now at the center of the government crisis. Gross is of course the cause of the crisis; Zaorálek, embarrassingly, has been his biggest defender; and Svoboda and Buzková, though less involved, have repeatedly shown that positions of power are more important to them than principles. One of the recurrent myths over the years has been that the next generation of politicians will be better than the old guard. This crisis has been a lesson in political realism. [Czech Republic]