Czech MP says her party needs new ‘sexy calendar’

The deputy leader of struggling Czech government party Public Affairs (VV) has said that its women members of Parliament may have to strip down again to their sexy underwear in a bid to boost the party’s sagging popular support.

VV first deputy chairwoman, Karolína Peake, said in an Internet chat hosted by the daily paper Lidové Noviny that its leading women would have to pose again in a racy calendar to try and win back support before future elections.

“If our efforts (to convince voters with results) don’t work out, then I and my colleagues will have to strip off again ahead of the elections. But I fear that after this year of stress the results might not be so great,” Peake replied to a male questioner as to how she and colleagues would convince voters after recent party problems.

The previous calendar was released during VV’s triumphant 2010 lower house of parliament (Chamber of Deputies) election campaign in which former the political outsider party won 12 percent of the national vote, 24 seats in parliament and a place in the center-right coalition government. ‘Perhaps we sometimes appear like extra-terrestrials, but we are not scoundrels.’

But a year is a long time, especially in Czech politics, with recent opinion polls suggesting that VV would not pass the 5 percent threshold to get a single seat in parliament following a series of scandals which have seriously tarnished the party’s anti-corruption crusading image and soured its relations with its partner parties in government. “Perhaps we sometimes appear like extra-terrestrials, but we are not scoundrels,” Peake said in reply to a question why she stuck with the party.

© ČTK

Another sneak Peake?

Centrist centerfolds?

Scoundrels or not, the next VV calendar will be missing some of its past top performers. The December pin-up in the last 2011 calendar, member of parliament Kristýna Kočí, has been kicked out of the party following one scandal centered on “cash for loyalty” payments paid by de facto party leader and former transport minister Vít Bárt.

Public Affairs is currently engaged in an attempt to grab back Cabinet places sacrificed as a result of scandals and bust ups with its coalition partners, the Civic Democrats (ODS) and TOP 09. If it does not win the required concessions, VV leaders say they will leave the coalition government, deprive it of a majority and, in all likelihood, force early elections.

For Czechs, generally sick and tired of politicians, it will at least offer the opportunity of a 2012 calendar where some of their leaders get down to the bare essentials without some of their clothes.