Senior Christian Democrat publicly accuses party leader of blatant lie

The Christian Democrats’ Miroslav Kalousek publicly accused chairman Jiří Čunek of telling a blatant lie at a news conference on Friday evening. After Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek said he planned to replace Mr Čunek as regional development minister in a cabinet reshuffle, the Christian Democrats chairman said he should instead remove Mr Kalousek as finance minister, an idea backed by the party’s leadership. On Friday they changed tack, insisting both men be allowed to remain in cabinet; Mr Kalousek’s charge reflected a disagreement over the real reasons for that u-turn.