Outspoken former PM Zeman guns for former party allies in new memoirs

The larger than life former prime minister Milos Zeman didn't mince his words while he was in politics, frequently employing razor sharp wit and choice language to put fellow politicians and journalists firmly in their place. But retirement at a cottage in the country does not seem to have mellowed Mr Zeman; his no holds barred memoirs have just been published, creating quite of a stir.

Foto: CTK

Mr Zeman's memoirs are entitled "Jak jsem se mylil v politice"("The Mistakes I Made in Politics"). And the mistakes in question, he says, were as a judge of character, mainly that of current prime minister Stanislav Gross, who he accuses of pulling the rug from under his feet.

After being best man at Mr Gross's wedding, Milos Zeman now calls him a "nevzdelanec" (ignoramus, philistine). He also accuses the prime minister of cronyism. For his part, Mr Gross says he plans to read the book on the toilet. Touche.

The minister of education, Petra Buzkova, and former prime minister Vladimir Spidla - once Mr Zeman's chosen successor - also come in for abuse in "The Mistakes I Made in Politics".

Foto: CTK

In many ways, the abrasive style of the book is simply of a piece with Mr Zeman's approach to politics. Here's commentator Jan Culik:

"Zeman is an interesting story. I think Zeman consciously decided to make it by behaving in a tabloid manner. Zeman realized in the second half of the 90s that unless he behaves really atrociously in public, unless he starts talking in lurid headlines, nobody will take any notice of him and the Social Democrats will not win in the elections. Basically with Zeman you just had to be outrageous."

But how have his "outrageous" memoirs been received? Most reaction so far has been rather negative, with Pravo, for instance, saying the book offers nothing but vulgarity and self justification. The daily also argues that the Social Democrats now lack heavyweight personalities precisely because Mr Zeman used the party to fulfil his own ambitions, rather than building it up into a real force.

Tuesday's Mlada fronta Dnes suggests that he filled the party with wolves - once he was off the scene they turned on each other, and on him.

Interestingly, the current government crisis which arose over a flat-financing scandal involving Mr Gross may have benefited Mr Zeman, whose book is selling like hot cakes. Copies would not be flying off the shelf at such a rate were it not for the ongoing political turmoil, according to one Prague bookseller.