Reopening Unipetrol

Only a masochist could sit through the 90 minutes devoted yesterday on TV Nova and ČT24 to the trials and tribulations of Health Minister David Rath. Healthcare is always a difficult issue, but the more controversy Rath stirs up, the more it appears that his real usefulness from Day One has been in deflecting attention away from Unipetrol. The Unipetrol privatization is one of the few issues potentially serious enough to cause ČSSD lasting damage in the elections. It's curious, then, that Tomáš Pitr of Setuza has been given a platform to go on TV and plead his case. The much-publicized arrest warrant against him on tax fraud has allowed him to reopen the vaguely related Unipetrol issue just as ČSSD and the Communists were putting it to rest. The timing of all this suggests that Jiří Paroubek is not as firmly in control of his government - and its secret services - as he likes to pretend. [Czech Republic Premier Czech Television Communist Party KSČM]