Heads they win, tails you lose

Amidst the rubble of the Prague elections, and with the continuing European financial mess smoldering in the background, two distinct political tendencies are becoming visible in Prague. First is the Newtonian inertia towards a grand coalition on the national level, which could benefit four of the Five Families (Zdeněk Bakala and his acolytes excluded). Second is an effort by the country's largest financial groups to use the 118-seat center-right coalition government to push through pension and healthcare reform that will secure them billions. Vít Bárta and Miroslav Kalousek are becoming the unofficial spokesmen for this purpose-driven reform movement. Which tendency prevails will depend in part on what happens in the eurozone, but for some of the chief players involved, it's six of one and half a dozen of the other. Which means that either tendency potentially spells trouble for almost everyone else.