Final Word from Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Two weeks after a court ruled with final legal force that the Czech foreign ministry's Institute of Int. Relations illegally fired ex-Dep. Foreign Min. Petr Drulák for having the wrong opinions, Environment Min. Petr Hladík wants to kick ex-Foreign Min. Cyril Svoboda out of KDU-ČSL for the same reason. KDU's leadership will address the issue today. When ČSSD's Brno chapter ejected activist Jakub Patočka in Nov. 2017 for having the wrong opinions, then-PM Bohuslav Sobotka said that, "If this policy of Bolshevik intolerance prevails in ČSSD, the party will become an unelectable sect." Sobotka's party had just squeaked by in the 2017 parliamentary elections, with 7.27% of the vote, and did indeed become unelectable in the 2021 elections, with 4.65%. The Czech Bill of Rights of course guarantees people the right to their opinions, and it also interdicts any exclusive state ideology or religion. KDU and its coalition partners are getting dangerously close to becoming a still-electable but unconstitutional sect. [ Czech Republic religious faith Constitution freedom of speech ]