PRAGUEWomen won more seats in the Czech parliament than ever before during national elections in late May. To tout its new stars, one upstart party decided to give them special billingas pin-up girls.
The
Public Affairs party is selling a 2011 calendar featuring photos of some of its leading female members, including four newly sworn-in lawmakers, clad in revealing outfits and posed provocatively.
A black-and-white portrait of Katerina Klasnova, a new vice speaker of parliament's Chamber of Deputies, graces the page for January. She has tousled blond hair and is wearing nothing but a black bra and short skirt.
Ms. December is the party's chief negotiator, Kristyna Koci, pictured peering over her glasses, dark knee-high stockings contrasting with her bare thighs and the strap of her negligée sliding down one shoulder.
The party's racy calendar, which was first released during the campaign, is a sign of the times here. A new generation of Czech women is coming of age that is embracing femininity and sex-appeal while at the same time fighting for, and winning, more equal treatment in the realms of business and government.
"Women's political influence is growing. Why not show we are women who aren't afraid of being sexy?" says Marketa Reedova, a 42-year-old Prague city councilwoman now running for mayor who also appears in the calendar. "Czechs are open-minded."