The high price of no Paroubek

The major political polls did a lousy job of predicting the final outcome of the Czech parliamentary elections, but readers of the Final Word hit the nail on the head. A plurality of 34.7% of the readers who participated in our pre-election survey with Donath-Burson-Marsteller predicted that ODS would form a government in a coalition with small parties. A plurality of 31.3% also thought that Petr Nečas would make the best prime minister. In a sense, the 8.1% who thought that Miroslav Kalousek should become PM were also right, given how much influence he will have on the cabinet. Participants were also undoubtedly correct in predicting higher taxes. What the poll participants couldn't predict is that ABL security agency would install five people in key government or ministerial positions and that ČEZmen would occupy four ministerial seats. As one reader put it, the elections achieved the key goal of eliminating the risk of a government of Jiří Paroubek and the Communists, but the price for this was very high indeed.