Sobotka caves

After weeks of standing up to Miloš Zeman, after weeks of putting on a tough face, Bohuslav Sobotka finally caved in. But not to Zeman. He succumbed to the "female lobby" within his party by appointing Michaela Marksová-Tominová as the labor & social-affairs minister. What's wrong with succumbing to the female lobby, he asked Právo? He had been criticized for not including any women among ČSSD's ministerial candidates, so when Petr Krčál dropped out, Sobotka listened to the women's support group and chose Marksová-Tominová. Headline writers are in despair, because this represents a nearly three-fold increase in the number of letters they must contend with (from the mere nine in "Petr Krčál" to 24). How to handle it? Some newspapers will abbreviate the minister's last name as M. To­minová. Commentators who fear that "Marx" might be more appropriate, given her socialist tilt, can take comfort in knowing that she will have such a big task cleaning up the labor ministry after TOP 09 that she won't have much time for ideology.