Final Word from Wednesday, June 26, 2019

A Million Moments for Democracy is still celebrating its considerable success of having gathered together 280,000 people on Letná field in Prague on Sun., and Parliament will respond today with a Hundred Moments for Andrej Babiš. It will be an uneven response in more ways than one. Most of the people at Letná had a strong desire to run Babiš out of office; most of the 100 or so MPs from ANO, ČSSD and KSČM who stand up today and declare that they are "against the motion" to topple him won't have their heart in it. They won't be voting so much to keep Babiš and all his conflicts of interest in office but rather not to let someone else dictate their political future. When Babiš wins the no-confidence vote, it will be more a vote of no-confidence in the opposition than a vote of confidence in him. This is a key distinction, but the opposition and the anti-Babiš media will do all they can to make sure the broad public doesn't understand it. You don't have to love Babiš or even like him to prefer him to what the other side is offering, and today's Hundred Moments in Parliament will be enough to prove it. [ Czech Republic coalition government ]