Toss the joker

"Where does he get those wonderful toys?" asked the Joker in the film "Batman." ODS Chair Mirek Topolánek pulled out a surprise yesterday when he invited ČSSD to join the ODS-KDU-Green coalition. It wasn't as wonderful as Batman's grappling gun, but it allowed Topolánek to do a dance around ČSSD's Jiří Paroubek and reclaim the initiative in the post-election talks. The goal is to resist Václav Klaus's grand-coalition plans and put the full blame for any failure in political talks on Paroubek. So far, Topolánek is doing surprisingly well. His next test will be early elections. For him to become prime minister, he'll need to be prepared to force an early vote - despite the risk to ODS - if Paroubek continues with his "destructive" policies. The ultimate success for Topolánek will be if, before it reaches this point, ČSSD comes to the conclusion on its own that Paroubek is the joker causing all the trouble and throws him from the nearest bell tower. [Czech Republic KDU-ČSL]