What Communists want

ODS Chair Mirek Topolánek seems to have struck a deal with Václav Klaus; the Christian Democrats (KDU) are being bought off with a Kč 270bn church-restitution deal; and a few ČSSD free agents are being recruited by ODS. To reelect Klaus, that just leaves the Communists. They'll draw out the elections to boost their value, but in the end their votes for Klaus will apparently come down to a trade-off between short-term political expedience and long-term political strategy. If they stood firm against Klaus, they could destabilize ODS and increase their viability in the future as a coalition partner. But living costs are rising, and even egalitarian Communists feel the pinch, so you gotta do what you gotta do. To make it look like a political victory, the Communists will also likely get a few more photo ops and some ambassadorial posts, but they will have missed their real political opportunity. (Czech Republic opportunities Bill Clinton KSČM KDU-ČSL]