Final Word from Monday, January 18, 2016

It used to be that a person could leave the Czech Republic for a month or two and not notice any major change upon his or her return. Not anymore. The refugees are disrupting the Czech sense of comfiness. Even Bohuslav Sobotka, who used to play down the security risk of the refugees, now says that there are Islamic radicals among them who used the confusion to come to Europe. Andrej Babiš now declares that the Czechs have no obligation to accept any refugees, despite the commitment of the cabinet to accept a voluntary quota of 1,500 over two years. Milan Chovanec says that the CR has the right to decide whom it wants to live with. These are the same politicians who signed a government program with focus on the EU integration core and a foreign-policy statement supporting a common visa, asylum and immigration policy. Before the next EU summit, perhaps the cabinet should reconfirm or revise these two documents. [Czech Republic agenda coalition European Union migration]