Final Word from Monday, April 23, 2018

If Andrej Babiš were convicted on the trial level for illegal use of subsidies to build his Stork's Nest facility, he would be required to resign as prime minister, assuming that ANO accepted ČSSD's condition to this effect for entering a coalition government. ČSSD has said nothing about mediating an orderly handover of power in such a situation, so the country would suddenly have a government "in resignation," without a clear path for installing a new PM and cabinet. This would put the country in a comparable position to where it was on June 16, 2013, when TOP 09 suddenly decided to withdraw its support for Petr Nečas of ODS, thereby forcing him to resign as PM. It was the police raid on the cabinet office that led to this, but it was TOP 09 that ultimately brought down the Nečas government and allowed Pres. Miloš Zeman to appoint the technocratic government of Jiří Rusnok. Without any police raid or any Jana Nagyová, ČSSD is now voluntarily setting itself up to be the agent that allows Zeman to again take full control of the cabinet. From this viewpoint, ČSSD truly is Zeman's party again. [Czech Republic Nečasová]