Thou Shalt Not Put Country Before Party

ČSSD to enforce party loyalty
The senior opposition Social Democrats (ČSSD) have launched fight against the practice of defection among parties' members, ČSSD chairman Jiri Paroubek and ČSSD deputies' group head Michal Hasek said at a press conference Tuesday.

The ČSSD, which has recently lost three deputies, pledged in a document called For a New Style in Politics not to accept defectors from other political parties.

The ČSSD also called on other parties in parliament to make a similar public commitment, thus contributing to the cultivation of the Czech political scene.

In other words, they fear and loathe competition. How incredibly . . . socialist. Or, neo-coM.

"We call on the [senior ruling Civic Democrats] ODS to leave this style of politics, which is much close to an organised crime environment than to democratic political competition," the ČSSD's document writes.

Cry me a freakin' river; then call in some backup to clean up the damn mess.

The ČSSD is also going to draft a bill to regulate lobbying, Paroubek and Hasek said.

Three former ČSSD deputies have left the party recently, supporting its rival, the ODS.

First, MPs Milos Melcak and Michal Pohanka left the ČSSD after they enabled the establishment of the ODS-led government in early 2007.

They also voted for the re-election of Vaclav Klaus, nominated by the ODS, as president in the election last Friday.

Another ČSSD MP, Evzen Snitily, was expelled from the party deputies' group last Friday after he disclosed shortly before the election that he would voted for Klaus.

The ČSSD, along with the junior ruling Greens and other individual MPs, promoted Klaus's rival, liberal economist Jan Svejnar.

Many say Klaus, who was elected by votes of a narrow majority of 141 of 279 lawmakers present, owes his success to Snitily's unexpected change of mind and to the absence of Greens deputy Olga Zubova on health grounds.

Paroubek has asked Snitily to give up his mandate of a deputy, which Snitily refused to do.

Snitily's local ČSSD branch in East Bohemia is yet to vote on his expulsion from the party.

Via The Prague Monitor

Neither Hillary nor Billary was availble for comment.


*** The witch hunt is on. Snitily's alleged to be a StB collaborator