Paroubek's lynching parties

When put side-by-side, all the public executions in the past few weeks by Jiří Paroubek and his henchmen are quite impressive. Not only has Paroubek installed David Rath as chief guillotiner and brought Jiřina Musílková to her knees at VZP, but his appointees are also chopping off heads at the Land Fund and PGRLF (under Farm Minister Jan Mládek), at the head-prosecutor's office (under Chief Prosecutor Renáta Vesecká) and at the building-preservation office (under Culture Minister Vítězslav Jandák). In most cases, the changes were preceded by financial scandals. There are of course suspicions that Paroubek's people merely want to redivert the money flow, not halt it, and ODS has its eyes open for this. But there's no denying that if Paroubek is able at least to give the impression of getting these albatrosses under control, it will give him heavy ammunition in the June elections.