Former leader says in-fighting and lack of loyalty behind election failure

The party’s former leader Mirek Topolánek was not present at the conference but sent an open letter analyzing the party’s election defeat and making recommendations for the future. He said that the main reason behind the failure was party infighting, a lack of loyalty and corruption scandals. He reminded the assembly that the party’s own deputies had helped bring down the government in the middle of the country’s EU presidency and said that he himself had been under constant attack from his own party members during his eight years as leader. Mr. Topolánek called for the party to unite and rally around its new leader, to effect a change of guard which would bring capable, young people to the fore and to show greater humility in the face of the public.