ODS's price of victory

Some political commentators (including perhaps us) who had written Mirek Topolánek off or were already shipping him up to Brussels will soon be predicting a come-from-behind ODS victory in the next parliamentary elections. Topolánek is on the rebound and thinks that voters will appreciate his approach to the economic crisis more than Jiří Paroubek's. To win the elections, though, Topolánek might have to ditch his party's panicky take-the-money-and-run attitude, which has been in effect for nearly a year and which played a role in ODS's disastrous results in the recent Senate and regional elections. ODS's voters might notice, for example, that Topolánek's party is the main force behind tainted privatization and environmental-cleanup deals, even if ODS finds a way to bring the other main political parties on board by spreading the wealth around. Voters aren't entirely blind. If the Topolánek government goes ahead with deals that make no sense in a crisis, they'll understand what the real motivation is. [Czech Republic corruption]