Klaus boosts Necas

As several people have already pointed out, including Václav Klaus in today's Týden, there could be a parallel between the British elections last week and the upcoming Czech elections. The new small Czech parties that are the darlings of the media might not do as well as the polls currently suggest, Klaus said. He's a fan of a grand coalition between ČSSD and ODS, and he exploits every opportunity to promote the idea. If he used today's interview in Týden to soften his recent criticism of ODS leader Petr Nečas, it might have been because he realized he overdid it last week in Euro. But a more realistic explanation would be if Nečas had also softened his opposition to a grand coalition during his one-on-one with Klaus. Nečas has said publicly that new elections would be better than a grand coalition. We won't know Nečas's true position until after the elections, but Klaus's sudden shift in opinion raises the possibility that Nečas accepted in private that the interests of ČEZ and other industrialists must continue to guide Czech politics.