Final Word from Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Not to be outdone by Emmanuel Macron, who supported the "French candidate," Andrej Babiš, before the first round of the presidential elections, German Amb. Andreas Künne gave an interview to LN that appeared before the polling stations closed on Sat. By no means was it an outright endorsement of the "German candidate," Danuše Nerudová, but Künne's comments did indeed mirror in some key ways the pro-German line of EU Affairs Min. Mikuláš Bek of STAN, for which Nerudová was the favored candidate. Bek's basic argument about the functioning of the EU is that unanimous voting in some areas needs to be abandoned in the interest of winning support for EU enlargement. Künne and his chancellor, Olaf Scholz, look at it from the perspective of one of the large EU countries that stand to gain joint dominion over a project with 30-35 members. Without Nerudová at the Castle, the German voice in Czech politics will suffer, and Künne will have to give more interviews. [ Czech Republic European Union qualified unanimity France Germany ]