Final Word from Monday, January 13, 2020

The Velvet Revolution started out as a party putsch of the young against the old, according to some participants. Two young party chairpersons, Markéta Pekarová Adamová of TOP 09 and Vít Rakušan of STAN, declared yesterday on OVM that membership in the Communist Party during normalization is a disqualifier for serving as ombudsman or human-rights envoy. Pekarová Adamová said that these positions require indisputable moral credibility, which Helena Válková as a pre-1990 Communist does not have. Rakušan echoed this. Yet individuals are appointed to these posts by the Parliament or the cabinet, which are higher in the constitutional hierarchy. Shouldn't TOP 09 and STAN now demand with as much vigor that MPs with a Communist past abstain from the vote on the ombudsman? Or perhaps it is time for anyone with a Communist past to be banned from holding any position that requires moral rectitude. Is it time for the Gretas of the world to take over? [ Czech Republic Thunberg KSČ ombusdswoman ANO ]