Final Word from Thursday, June 25, 2020

The Velvet Revolution came so unexpectedly that some of today's political and societal leaders joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) just weeks or months before the Wall came down, and before the keys started jangling on Wenceslas Square. On the fateful day of Nov. 17, 1989, Rudé právo wrote on its front page that the cabinet had just addressed the first version of a stabilization program for recovering and strengthening equilibrium in the economy. Pretty much what the Czech and European media are saying now about the coronavirus recovery. Much as in the top hierarchy of KSČ in 1989, the people who are making decisions now show little sign of understanding that more and more of the same policies that got the economy to where it is today can't be used to prevent some sort of new revolution. On the Czech level, it's as if our political and societal leaders, with very few exceptions, have eagerly joined the Corona Party of Czechia (KSČ) just before its biggest crisis. [ Czech Republic jingle jangle newspaper Berlin Wall ]