Phoney, vacuous and mendacious

Mirek Topolánek stormed out of one of the meetings at the EU summit last week, according to a front-page story on Sat. in MF Dnes. Topolánek denied it, and that was that. It was a minor issue, but in a more serious matter, Ekonom quoted Topolánek last week as saying that Slovak PM Robert Fico boasted to him about the central-parity rate for the Slovak crown before it was made public. Topolánek claimed later that his direct quote was a misunderstanding, and that was that. Neither story had much shelf life in the CR, because Topolánek issued flat denials. In both instances, though, reports in the foreign press (the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in the first case, and SME in the second) give reason to believe that Topolánek wasn't telling the truth. Sure, everybody in politics lies, to paraphrase film mogul David Geffen, but the ease with which Topolánek has learned to do it is troubling. [Czech Republic phony European Union Lisbon treaty prime minister Bill Hillary Clinton Slovakia]