The man with no opinion

When Jiří Paroubek said he was going to let opinion polls guide his politics, he wasn't exaggerating. On issue after issue - registered partnerships for homosexuals, enlarged territorial limits for coal mining, nonprofit status for hospitals, confiscation of land for Hyundai, to name a few - he has let the polls make the decisions. On the Hyundai issue, he even stressed his willingness to confiscate the land after the deal was already done and no confiscation was needed. A poll had found, you see, that 57% of Czechs think confiscation would be justified, and he wanted to secure their votes. Václav Klaus told LN that ČSSD now bases its politics entirely on expediency. This is a huge change, he said. Klaus and ODS have often stated that no one knows what Paroubek thinks about the EU, but the same can be said of almost any issue. At least, that is, until ČSSD commissions an opinion poll on it. [Czech Republic Social Democrats Lidové noviny healthcare foreign direct investment premier president]