Green offshoots
The Green Party did plenty on its own to bring about a thumping in the EU elections, but it apparently also got a big push from a powerful political player. It can't be proven, but there is reason to believe that ČEZ helped finance the election campaign of Olga Zubová and her Green offshoot, DSZ. Ex-Green Chair Martin Bursík hinted at this in an interview on Z1. And there are direct commercial links between ČEZ and Jaromír Soukup of Médea, who claims to have paid for DSZ's Kč 5m+ campaign out of his own pocket. Why would ČEZ want to run the Greens out of Parliament? First, so that ODS and ČSSD can form a grand coalition. And second, because the Greens are troublemakers and are opposed to the use of obsolete, low-efficiency technology for the retrofit of Prunéřov II power plant and a new plant at Ledvice. ČEZ's preferred supplier, Škoda/Appian, doesn't have state-of-the-art technology.
Glossary of difficult words
offshoot - a thing that originated or developed from something else; a side shoot or branch of a plant;Green offshoots - a play on the phrase "green shoots" which is often used these days when talking about the first signs of an economic recovery;
thumping - a pounding, heavy defeat;
DSZ - Democratic Party of the Greens (Demokratická strana zelených);
Z1 - see "Interview B.T." from May 29;
retrofit - the state of adding a component or accessory to something that did not have it at the time of manufacture;
state-of-the-art - ultra-modern, the latest.