Final Word from Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Czechs are busy debating whether the government of Petr Fiala made a tactical mistake by nominating only a single person to the EU Commission, instead of both a male and female, as requested by Ursula von der Leyen. The logic goes that she could now retaliate by giving Jozef Síkela (STAN) a weak portfolio. Pres. Tomáš Prouza of the SOCR retail union told Czech Radio yesterday (at 14:07) that it's a power struggle between the PMs on the Council and von der Leyen and that he thinks the PMs agreed among themselves to nominate only one person each as a way to reclaim their authority in this respect. Lukáš Matoška of ČRo was taken aback, because he hadn't heard this before. His next question should have been whether Prouza had heard it directly from Síkela, given that Prouza is one of his advisers, but Matoška didn't mention this conflict of interest. Thanks to Prouza's apparent leak of inside information, the debate can now shift to whether ganging up on Ursula is a good tactic. [ Czech Republic retailer commissioner industry minister ]
Glossary of difficult words
to gang up on - to join together in order to intimidate or oppose someone;
power struggle - a situation in which two or more people or groups compete for control in a particular sphere;
to take aback - to shock or surprise someone.