Final Word from Wednesday, January 31, 2024

No one should be experiencing greater Schadenfreude than the Pirates at the latest antics of STAN Chair Vít Rakušan. First he attacked PM Petr Fiala in a surprise marketing video, then he confused the capital markets and himself with conflicting versions of whether the Fiala government intends to take full control of ČEZ. Hardly anyone came to the side of the Pirates when STAN hoodwinked them out of almost all of their seats in the lower house of Parliament by encouraging voters to circle out the Pirates' candidates. Almost everyone else in politics was secretly pleased that it happened, because it was the Pirates after all. Hardly anyone even cared when Pirates MP Jakub Michálek said that STAN's circling-out campaign was funded with money stolen from DP Praha transit company in the Dosimeter criminal case. But now that ODS is the victim, STAN's behavior is suddenly an issue. The Pirates are getting the last laugh and can lean back, cross their arms and say, "We told you so." [ Czech Republic buyout of minority shareholders tricked cheated preference votes ]