Shadow PM Karel Havlíček of ANO told LN earlier this month that the Fiala government promised to stand up for families and the needy but is really giving them short shrift. Large corporations are in control in the country, he said. Yet the large corporations that signed a letter to PM Petr Fiala in Sept. in support of same-sex marriage lost a major cultural battle in the lower chamber of Parliament yesterday when Havlíček's ANO and most of the ruling coalition passed a bill denying same-sex pairs the right to marry. Even Petr Fiala was present to vote down same-sex marriage. This came one month after the Senate rejected another progressive document, the Istanbul Convention. The large drinks producers behind a bill for a deposit on PET bottles are also coming up against fierce opposition from local and regional officials. And the major trade associations representing large corporations aren't being heard in terms of adoption of the euro. Is this all perhaps part of a new Czech national revival? [ Czech Republic Lidové noviny homosexual gay LGBT+ ]
Glossary of difficult words
short shrift - rapid and unsympathetic dismissal; curt treatment;
to vote (something) down - to defeat by voting against.