Final Word from Thursday, April 3, 2014
Perhaps it's just a coincidence that Andrej Babiš's newspapers have gained access to a remarkable number of internal finance-ministry documents since Babiš took over the ministry. Perhaps it's also a coincidence that many of the documents relate in one way or another to Bohuslav Sobotka's tenure at the ministry. The latest result of MFD's "months-long" investigation into OKD are facsimiles of letters from the ministry that, if taken at face value, are a smoking gun indicating that Sobotka worked with his lawyer friend Radek Pokorný to help Zdeněk Bakala purloin OKD. It is now up to Andrej Babiš and Miloš Zeman to decide how long to allow Sobotka to continue as prime minister. If they withdrew their support for him, the coalition could go on its merry way with a new PM. (Sobotka is nearly invisible anyway.) If they really wanted to humiliate him, they could wait for someone close to him to be arrested. [Czech Republic Mladá fronta Lidové noviny LN Pokorný Wagner law firm BXR NWR]
Glossary of difficult words
to hang on - to stay on course, persevere or remain firm, esp. in difficult times;
tenure - the holding of an office; the period for which an office is held;
facsimile - an exact copy, esp. of written or printed material;
face value - the apparent significance or value of something;
smoking gun - a piece of incontrovertible incriminating evidence;
to purloin - to steal;
to humiliate - to make someone feel ashamed and foolish by injuring his or her dignity and self-respect, esp. publicly.