Soon after the votes were counted on Sat., an already tipsy Miroslav Kalousek told Czech TV that he certainly wouldn't rate TOP 09's performance in the Senate elections a failure. Well, in fact TOP 09 won only two of the 27 seats, for 7.4% of those at stake. This falls to half that level is you consider that newly elected TOP Sen. Jaromír Štětina is actually a Green. In crude percentage terms, TOP is on a downward election trajectory that will be difficult to reverse. Kalousek is increasingly using strong-arm tactics to hang on to power and money (auditing Defense Minister Vondra, trying to take back carbon credits, insisting on the eco-tender, steamrolling Parliament to pass reform bills already baked into his budget). If Transport Minister Vít Bárta has a Putin complex, Kalousek is increasingly looking like Boris Yeltsin. Whose popularity plummeted as he became dictatorial and drank himself to death.