Numbers don't lie or mislead, even if politicians use them to do both. Radek Vondráček can talk about accepting the walk-out support of the MPs from SPD (22) and the Communists (15) for a minority ANO government, but this is a fudge, because Vondráček doesn't say which other eight MPs would leave the chamber too. ANO would need 45 MPs to walk out in order to secure a confidence vote, and the Communists and SPD have only 37. Which of the "democratic" parties would throw in with the oligarch, the extremists and the Communists? Likewise, Miroslav Kalousek can talk about SPD, the Communists and the Pirates holding responsibility for an ANO minority government that rules for months and months without a confidence vote, but how does he expect them to prevent a negative? Babiš doesn't need their 59 votes to lose a confidence vote. Amid all this number-crunching and fudging, one figure is starting to shine through. It's 122. Unless Babiš wants to prove Vondráček and Kalousek at least partly right, he should hope that all 122 MPs but ANO's vote against his minority government. [Czech Republic KSČM]
Glossary of difficult words
fudge - an attempt to confuse an issue;
to throw in with someone - to join forces with or take the side of someone;
number-crunching - the performing of calculations.