Mil's methods

The grasshoppers and the bellicose red ants are preparing to join forces in Parliament to pass a new paternalist labor code. KDU Chair Miroslav Kalousek suggested that ČSSD, under Jirka P., wants to cuddle up to the Bolsheviks and is using the labor code as the excuse. There's another angle to it, though, and it involves the hardworking ants. Their sort-of leader, President Jaroslav Míl of the Confederation of Industry, has overplayed his hand on the labor code, thinking that a tough-guy pose would make him the minister of industry under ODS. He arrogantly walked out of labor-code talks and royally peeved Paroubek. It might be a political mistake for Paroubek to allow Míl to drive ČSSD toward the Communists, but employers are also to blame. They're losing their clout with ČSSD by letting Míl put his political ambitions before their economic interests.