Final Word from Thursday, October 24, 2024

If about 18,000 more people had voted in the parliamentary elections in Oct. 2021 for either Robert Šlachta's Přísaha/Oath or Jan Hamáček's ČSSD, the Czech PM today would no doubt be Andrej Babiš. Those two parties missed passing the 5% threshold by about 0.35% of the vote each. Babiš lost his position of power because of this, and he is apparently now trying to will the same fate on Petr Fiala, on whoever Fiala's successor at the helm of ODS might be, or on Pres. Petr Pavel's apparent favorite as the next PM, STAN Chair Vít Rakušan. Instead of concentrating his efforts on attacking ODS and STAN, Babiš is doubling down in his criticism of the Pirates. He could have taken their side against ODS in the building-permit and budget disputes but didn't. If this strategy works so well that the Pirates drop out of Parliament next year and the current four-party coalition falls just short of the votes it needs, Babiš will have clear sailing into cabinet headquarters. But if the strategy fails and the Pirates shine before the elections as both the anti-Babiš and anti-Fiala opposition, Babiš could find himself one year from now in the same position all over again. [ Czech Rebublic Jakub Michálek ANO SocDem ]