Final Word from Thursday, May 23, 2019

Senior Prague State Prosecutor Lenka Bradáčová owes her career in part to David Rath. Before he was arrested on corruption charges seven years ago, Bradáčová was well known in professional circles, but not among the wider public. Now, the Million Moments for Democracy movement is even going to bat for her, demanding that PM Andrej Babiš leave her in place. Rath remains one of the biggest notches in her gun. Despite indications that he was collecting money for ČSSD's coffers, Bradáčová never went further up the party hierarchy. Rath became a sort of lone wolf, not a case study in how party financing works. This allowed Jiří Paroubek, Bohuslav Sobotka and others at the top of ČSSD to breathe a sigh of relief. Or even to take to the streets to demonstrate. Sobotka turned out three weeks ago, and Pilsen Gov. Josef Bernard was there this week. Bradáčová is investigating Bernard's old company, Škoda Transportation, but has said publicly that he's not being targeted. This state of affairs suits Bernard so much that he's willing to defy the ANO-ČSSD coalition and to protest in defense of the Czech judiciary. [ Czech Republic judicial branch chairman ]