Final Word from Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Even if ODS had submitted a picture-perfect income-tax amendment, Andrej Babiš would have rejected it yesterday, because Petr Fiala's party declared a low-tolerance policy for what it called the "semi-Communist" Babiš government on July 10. That day this summer was a key moment in ODS history, because the party officially declared Babiš a mortal enemy and aligned itself firmly with the forces that had deprived it of power exactly five years earlier. That's when Petr Nečas was ousted as PM. MP Miroslava Němcová of ODS told Info.cz on July 12 of this year that the only one who rose to the top because of the "coup d'état" against Nečas was Andrej Babiš, yet she forgot that it was Miroslav Kalousek and Karel Schwarzenberg who ultimately brought Nečas down and that it was Bohuslav Sobotka who became the next confirmed PM. Babiš will always be a political rival to ODS, but so far he has done less to hurt it than some of ODS's newfound friends did. [ Czech Republic takeover