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Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas is facing yet another problem in the shape of the education minister’s aide Ladislav Bátora, who, as the Mladá Fronta DNES headline explains, is responsible for "a fresh episode in the government crisis." On August 17, five ministers from the TOP 09 party walked out of a cabinet meeting in protest against Bátora’s remarks about Karel Schwarzenberg, the foreign minister and leader of TOP 09, whom he described as a "poor old geezer" and "insolent spit-sprayer" on his Facebook page. The ministers are threatening to leave the government — a move that would bring about its downfall — if Bátora and the education minister do not resign. As the Prague daily explains, the problem is that Bátora, a former far-right leader and head of the Eurosceptic movement DOST, benefits from the support of Czech President Václav Klaus, who never misses an opportunity to undermine Nečas.
The Bátora affair bears a marked resemblance to a similar incident in Italy: the Minister of Federal Reforms, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, recently prompted an outcry in the Italian press when he described the minister for public adminstration, Renato Brunetta, as a "ball-breaking dwarf."
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