The new Stanislav Gross

It's flirting with disaster for the "new" face of ČSSD to be Bohuslav Sobotka. Czechs are looking more than ever for clean politicians they can support, but Sobotka can't fill this role in ČSSD the way Petr Nečas has in ODS. Sobotka is certainly trying. He said, for example, that ABL's ministers present a bigger risk than ever before of a conflict of interest, with the exception of ex-Transport Minister Aleš Řebíček. Sobotka shouldn't be so humble. It's not for nought that he came to be known in business circles as Finance Minister "Čobka" Sobotka. (We always preferred the more versatile "Suitcase" Sobotka.) It was Nečas himself who compared Sobotka to ex-PM Stanislav Gross in HN and said that journalists are naive if they believe the tall tales about Kč 100m in stock trades (Gross) or about saving Kč 5.5m for an apartment in just a few years (Sobotka). It might be tempting for ČSSD to present Sobotka as its answer to the introverted and clean Petr Nečas, but Sobotka will instead remain a drab version of Stanislav Gross. [Czech Republic ČSOB Hospodářské noviny prime minister VV Věci veřejné]