PM apologises for Saturday speech

Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has apologised for a controversial speech he made on Saturday evening questioning the result of the general election in which his Social Democrats came second. At a news conference on Thursday, Mr Paroubek said that while the subject of his speech was rational, the means of expression he used were wrong. Mr Paroubek also called his emotional speech "the first serious mistake he had made in his 13 months in office". In his Saturday speech, Prime Minister Paroubek accused a number of Czech journalists of being mercenaries of the Civic Democratic Party and also likened the party's policies to the Communist takeover in 1948.