Final Word from Monday, December 18, 2017

"What we didn't like," said ex-Foreign Min. Lubomír Zaorálek of ČSSD on Czech TV last Thur., "was that we knew that 90% of migrants were getting to Europe with the help of criminal organizations and that the profit from this ... was estimated at €6bn per year." He added that there were leaks about how these criminal organizations had contacts in political circles. As he was speaking, European leaders were again starting to press the CR and its eastern neighbors to accept refugee quotas. "Nobody at the summit but me said that we mainly need to be active in fighting against the smuggling mafia," Andrej Babiš told MFD the next day. "Nobody wants to talk about this." He then told TV Nova that if we are again outvoted on quotas, the existence of the EU will even be more threatened. Is this really what it's coming down to? A choice of defending the interests of criminal organizations profiting from illegal immigration, or the collapse of the vaunted European project? [Czech Republic Television mandatory asylum]