How to discredit the little guys

With the Tuscany and Janoušek scandals still ringing in voters' ears, the CR's small political parties smell blood. Conditions are ripe, they feel, for rewriting the political map. At the same time, bad press about two of the small parties - TOP 09 and VV - is building. Some link them to the Tuscany photos, others note their alleged ties to dirty money. Even Karel Schwarzenberg's "house" paper, HN, jumped on TOP today for signing up an ex- investment banker from a top go-to bank for shady deals. There are also whispers about an ex-marketing manager eager to take his corruption to a new level. Unlike other little parties, TOP 09 and VV were apparently created with the aim of complementing ODS. If TOP and VV get massacred in the media, it won't hurt ODS's grand-coalition chances, but it might very well turn voters against anti-establishment small parties in general. Perhaps it's too conspiratorial to ponder the possibility that this was one of the envisioned scenarios when the flow charts for TOP 09 and VV were being drawn up. [Czech Republic Roman Hospodářské noviny Věci veřejné CAIB CA IB]