Final Word from Monday, August 12, 2013
Karolína Peake's swan song as chair of LIDEM was to betray her party's position on confirmation for the Rusnok cabinet, apparently because she had her own little side deal going. After Bohuslav Sobotka of ČSSD flipped in the opposite direction on the confirmation vote, some revisionists came up with the shallow explanation that he didn't actually betray his own stated mission of saving the party from Miloš Zeman, because he is now plotting to take the initiative away from Zeman with early elections. Acting Chair Martin Kuba of ODS also has something up his sleeve. He talks of wanting to return ODS to the position of a 30%+ conservative party that defends the interests of the Right, yet he also wants to throw in with Václav Klaus, who is helping Zeman to consolidate power in a Putin-like "power vertical." Alas, Czech politics is replete with parties that can't trust their own chairman to do what is best for the party. [Czech Republic Jiří Vladimir Russia parliamentary]
Glossary of difficult words
side deal - a transaction between two people for their private benefit, and not on behalf of the organizations they represent;
to flip - (in this context) to change one's position on a vote;
revisionist - one who revises an attitude to a previously accepted situation or point of view;
to throw in (one's lot) with someone - to ally oneself closely with and share the fate of a person or group;
power vertical - the accumulation of power by someone at the top of the power structure;
replete with - filled or well-supplied with something.