Rath has all the time he needs. He doesn't have to worry about whether Musílková will oblige Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek's calls for her resignation. Also, Rath is not in the shoes of now former Agriculture Minister Petr Zgarba, who has lost his seat along with Paroubek's confidence. The health care sector faces huge problems and therefore a nightmare is menacing any political party that holds the Health Ministry before an election. A party can lose a lot of votes by occupying this ministry. On the other hand, one can win votes by taking positive and effective steps in the health care sector. That's the ambition of any successful prime minister. So far Paroubek's been a success and by appointing Rath he hopes to do even better. It would be impossible to solve all health care problems in seven months, which is why Rath has concentrated on the most visible one: VZP. He's made a frontal assault, appointed a forced administrator, promised to stop the growing debt, speed up payments to doctors and in this way improve medical service. Simple and transparent. Rath acts in agreement with Paroubek. They are both playing a hazardous game because when they say there was certain cash flow between VZP and the ODS, they must prove it or face political trouble. It is odd that the prime minister mentioned this pending accusation weeks ago and lost the element of surprise. The ODS has made no use of the given time and has provided nothing to weaken or denounce the suspicion. VZP is a promising target and to assault it under the flag of patients' interests could guarantee Rath's future presence in the ministerial seat. But certainly there is a political risk as well. Patients could turn to other health insurance companies and the state covers 50 percent of eventual VZP losses — which would be drawn from taxpayers' pockets, Verner writes.

Agriculture Minister Petr Zgarba sacked everybody he could from the Land Fund but, had he been more a politician than a farmer, he would have known that his days in office are over and would have left earlier with at least some honor intact, Martin Komárek writes in Mladá fronta Dnes Nov. 11.

It could be that Zgarba feels he's been wronged. Some ministers send princes home to Qatar or watch murderers escape justice, while all he did was forget to keep an eye on his clerks. Zgarba failed to understand his responsibility for this enormous scandal, which could even turn against the prime minister and damage the ČSSD's pre-election chances. Unlike his counterpart at the Justice Ministry, Zgarba lacks political backing. In such cases, Paroubek boosts his popularity by showing himself as a resolute prime minister. Although not elected, Paroubek is a sort of autocrat, changing ministers like figures, demonstrating that he doesn't run away from problems. Paroubek got rid of Stanislav Gross and would not keep another walking target on his team. Zgarba had no chance of survival. It's a little late now, but Zgarba can still return to his farm. Maybe there's still time for him to file some restitution claims, Komárek writes.