Final Word from Monday, December 16, 2013
Miloš Zeman is losing his relevance, as we wrote last week, but he insists on digging himself deeper into the hole he has dug for himself. He said on F1 radio last night that the job of the president is primarily to take action when there is an incompetent government that does not have the support of 80% of the population. Preventing it from continuing, he said, is one of the reasons for having a president, and he took credit for not allowing the Nečas cabinet to continue. He then went on to say that he defines the word "idiot" as the difference between someone's ambitions and his competence. Both must be present, he said. An idiot, he explained, is an average physicist who thinks he is Albert Einstein. Two obvious questions present themselves. What does this say about a president with a 15% approval rating (according to one poll) who wants to be loved by the bottom 10 million? And whose job is it to prevent him from continuing? [Czech Republic opinion survey]
Glossary of difficult words
F1 radio - Frekvence 1 (not yet available on the internet);
to take credit for something - to attribute to oneself the responsibility for a thing well done.