Final Word from Thursday, December 7, 2023

Of all the major political decisions of Karel Schwarzenberg, the most pertinent to today's events came on June 16, 2013, when he and Miroslav Kalousek of TOP 09 decided to pull out of the coalition government of Petr Nečas without knowing what would come next. Schwarzenberg is now gone (his funeral is on Sat.), but Kalousek is again at the center of a coalition dispute. He's stirring the pot by criticizing PM Petr Fiala's agreement last week with doctors and saying that the real force behind it was Ivan Netuka, a healthcare adviser to Fiala. Netuka wrote an SMS calling Health Min. Vlastimil Válek of TOP 09 a "swine," as Kalousek noted, but more important is a report by Jaroslav Kmenta indicating that Netuka and famous surgeon Jan Pirk, a senator, were stealing from IKEM clinic. Fiala is apparently protecting them. It was ultimately the police and prosecutors who brought down Nečas. Fiala's fate could also now be in their hands, and Kalousek is again a potential catalyst for unpredictable change. [ Czech Republic fall collapse Jana Nagyová Nečasová Reportér ]