Final Word from Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Alena Vitásková is one tough customer and isn't going down without a fight. She's the subject of an organized effort involving Parliament, at least two ministries, the prime minister, the cabinet as a whole and the police to remove her as chair of the ERÚ energy-regulatory office in violation of EU law, but instead of taking the easy way out, as most Czech officials would, she is exposing the effort for what it is. She's explaining how people in power operate when there is taxpayer money to be passed around. When the police intentionally filed formal charges against her on Fri., just ahead of yesterday's cabinet meeting, she hit back by firing her deputy Jan Nehoda. It was a clever move on her part: She is being hauled before the court for causing Kč 1m in damages by hiring Renata Vesecká; Nehoda skirted the law so that an amount 42,000 times larger - Kč 42bn - could be paid out. Yet the police for some reason aren't interested in that. [Czech Republic European Union]