Final Word from Thursday, January 7, 2021

Opposition politicians are up in arms because Pres. Miloš Zeman announced the date for parliamentary elections 10 months in advance, thereby putting new coalitions at a financial disadvantage. It was another of the strategic moves by a president that, according to many of his critics, is long out of moves. The uproar over the early announcement of the Oct. 8-9 election date completely drowned out a far more significant announcement by Zeman. He said in his Christmas address that we should not succumb to the temptation to call for a further easing of the covid restrictions. The government had just ordered all non-essential stores to close and had moved the curfew up to 9pm; Zeman was calling for these restrictions to remain in place indefinitely. It was the same president who had declared in early Oct. that the country could not survive another lockdown. Zeman has now given the official presidential seal of approval to what could essentially become a permanent lockdown. [ Czech Republic MFD Mladá fronta MF Dnes ]