Final Word from Thursday, March 7, 2024
The Fiala cabinet is being strategically ambiguous about what French Pres. Emmanuel Macron's visit to Prague means for the ongoing nuclear-power tender, but pro-government commentators are already banging the drum in EDF's favor. Their message is that if a strategic decision was made to tie the country to the U.S. in defense matters until 2070 by buying F-35 fighters, a geopolitical balance needs to be made in this other strategic area by awarding the nuclear deal to the French. Ondřej Houska of HN said that it's simply a fact that the tender is more than just a commercial deal or energy project and that it has a clear strategic dimension. Yet if the Fiala cabinet accepts this rationale and decides essentially to disqualify the South Koreans of KHNP on strategic or geopolitical grounds, it will be negating its own main argument for awarding the no-bid fighter contract to the Americans. Fiala and Defense Min. Jana Černochová always argued that it was the army that wanted the F-35s and that the military experts should make the decision. By this reasoning, the question in the nuclear deal should be: What does ČEZ want? [ Czech Republic Lockheed Martin United States president ambiguity ]
Glossary of difficult words
strategically ambiguous - a phrase used by Macron last week with regard to sending troops to Ukraine;
ongoing - continuing; still in progress;
to bang/beat the drum - to speak enthusiastically about a belief or idea in order to persuade other people to support it too;
rationale - a set of reasons or a logical basis for a course of action or belief;
no-bid contract - a sole-source contract; a contract awarded to a single vendor without conducting a competitive bidding process.