Final Word from Monday, February 16, 2015
Anyone who follows the Czech news closely heard or read more than a dozen times last week that Helena Válková was "beginning to be relatively disgusted" with the events surrounding her further tenure at the helm of the justice ministry. No one bothered to ask her exactly what she meant by this. Until today, when Právo gave her nearly two pages to air all the dirty laundry. What had disgusted her, she said, was the negative campaign against her in recent months by Lidové noviny. It kept pulling out her alleged mistakes of the past and recycling them, she said. Not even this would have forced her out, she said, but ANO wrote her resignation letter for her and asked her to sign it. Editors-in-chief István Léko of LN and Jaroslav Plesl of MFD are playing a dangerous game. They're serving as Andrej Babiš's well-paid henchmen and in the process are gradually destroying their own reputations and those of their newspapers. At what point does the cost to Babiš of their handiwork exceed the benefit, and he sends them their own letters of resignation? [Czech Republic Mladá fronta Dnes Mafra]
Glossary of difficult words
tenure - the holding of an office;
helm - a position of leadership;
henchman - a faithful follower or political supporter; esp. one prepared to engage in crime or dishonest practices by way of service;
one's handiwork - something that one has done or made; one's creation, product or achievement.