Learning from Gross's mistakes

Stanislav Gross told Czech TV yesterday that he waited to resign as ČSSD chairman so that it wouldn't appear to be an admission of guilt. In fact, though, the resignation came just as the Unipetrol scandal was starting to seriously threaten ČSSD. It didn't look good for it to vote against a parliamentary investigation and then for the names of Jiří Paroubek and Bohuslav Sobotka to appear in connection with the alleged corruption. Gross's resignation and Paroubek's call for early elections have probably saved the day for ČSSD. But this scandal, perhaps more than any other since 1997, has confirmed to voters that politics is a dirty business. Like ODS in 1997, ČSSD got careless and relied too much on uncontrollable foreign partners. Sadly, the response of the politicians isn't to clean up their act, but rather to cover their tracks more carefully the next time.