Why am I throwing it to Babiš? Commentary by Štěpán Cháb
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09/01/2023
Photo: Courtesy of Andrej Babiš
Description: Andrej Babiš
In the editorial office of Krajské listů.cz, we are again on many sides during the presidential elections, we do not agree. Some will vote for General Pavel, others for Babiš (the editor-in-chief will not go to the first round at all, in the second she will vote against Babiš). I modestly belong to the second group. I will defend it, I will defend it.
First, I will take a detour through Jaroslav Bašta. SPD candidate Jaroslav Bašta won the pre-election debate on CNN Prima News according to the audience’s vote. There was an enthusiastic throng at the alternative scene. He won the debate, he will win the election. And that’s how the votes that will go to the five-coalition candidates will be split. That is, Pavla and Neruda. Because what Bašta gets, it goes to Babiš. And there is a threat that the best round of presidential elections without a choice. That is, according to the Russian rule between the general and the rector.
Now to the defense of Babiš. During his reign I showed great dislike towards him and did not play with Nora Fridrichová with her pretended impartiality. I just drove into it like a starling. The martyrdom he demonstrated during covid was spectacular and threatening. There was also the fact that selected professional fields would be required to be vaccinated. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Unfortunately, thanks to the fact that Petr Fiala won the election. But every state behaved exactly like Babiš. And even in that he was actually moderate in the restrictions. Germany, Canada, Austria, France, Australia, everywhere they were far more aggressive and trampled on people with greater brutality and disregard for their opinions. Babiš was just acting like everyone else.
Now the question is simple. Would anyone from high-ranking Czech politics behave differently? Was he smarter than Fiala as prime minister during covid? By his recent behavior, he certainly isn’t. So blaming Babiš for the covid period is nonsense. Covid came from a higher power that Babiš could not influence. At first he behaved frightened, then he just went to the aid of the covid hysterics, the fanatics who controlled the media and public space. In the years before covid, as I wrote, Babiš led the republic sensibly, the republic grew richer (although not wiser), the public debt fell, people had more in their wallets. See article:
Why Babiš na Hrad? Petr Fiala and his political direction took over the Chamber of Deputies, took over the Senate and are now grinding their teeth on the Castle as well. The Constitutional and Supreme Administrative Court will then rule from the Castle. And if we want to continue to live in some semblance of a democracy, Fiala should have an opposition a little less toothless than the one he has now in the House, where Fiala is enjoying his one-hundred-eighth war that bulldozes the opposition. In a democracy, it is necessary to have someone constantly on the government circles’ heels and have the leverage to possibly reverse their bad steps. And that they are under Fiala’s patronage. Terrible.
That is also why I understand the thinking of outgoing President Miloš Zeman, who wants to appoint the future president of the Constitutional Court before the end of his mandate, but the mandate ends in August, so the next president should be appointed by the new president. But Zeman wants to take it now, as a matter of habit. What does it mean? It is clearly an insurance policy against Fial and his government, which controls the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, now there is a real threat that it will also control the Castle. Zeman thus plans to give the republic an insurance gift. A constitutional court outside Fiala’s influence, which would be able to stop the purple government in its ideas on censorship, closing the inconvenient, dragging the Czech Republic into wars and introducing the totalitarian manners of the minister for desphoscene Víto Rakušan (among many other things). Praise God for Zeman. Now, like the badger, he is waiting to see how the election turns out. And Fial’s government is waiting with Zeman. She is waiting for Zeman’s end.
Just look under the hands of the current government. President Zeman refused to appoint Petr Hladík from Lidovec as Minister of the Environment. There was no political tussle. Marian Jurečka, the leader of the People’s Party, quietly moved Hladík to the relevant ministry and is waiting for Zeman to walk away to the dustbin of history. With the certainty that Danuš or Pavel Hladík will be appointed without objection. Likewise, the Austrian is waiting with his censorship law and bribes for journalists. Zeman sits at the Castle. When Danuše or Pavel settle there, they will have a free field. The five-coalition ceiling and wanted candidate will settle in the Castle. And he will cut purple Latina.
Perhaps it would be appropriate if we made the last match a little easier for Miloš Zeman and installed Babiš at the Castle. Although it doesn’t smell much, it doesn’t even smell to me, it will become an insurance policy against Fial. He will control it, guard it, root for his government, and as a result, he will not allow Fiala and his hooray group with headquarters on the pirate red schooner to break free from the chain and together they will make our republic an open-air museum of lawlessness.
Babiš is not a personality that can be classified among the moral elite of the republic with a clear conscience. But he will become an insurance policy against Fial. And that is the essential role of democracy. Very, very important for the republic. The general and the rector become just an extended hand of Fiala. True, they will look good on postage stamps, but that’s about the only advantage. Now it is somehow not appropriate to vote “with the heart”, but with the mind. And despite opposition or disagreement with Babiš, it is reasonable to choose him for the Castle. Fiala must have a strong and powerful opposition for her sheep. This is what democracy is all about. Democracy is a chess game. And it cannot be played unless there are two similarly strong opponents. They must control each other. Babiš’s government was also controlled by the opposition of the occupied Senate. And it was only good.
And therefore every vote that is cast at the ballot box for Jaroslav Bašta is a vote for the five-coalition Russian government between Pavlo and Neruda. And every vote that falls into the urns for Pavla and Neruda is a vote forever.
Posted by: Stepan Chab