Final Word from Monday, June 13, 2016

It's a simplification to say that ČSSD's reorganization of the anti-corruption police is designed specifically to save Bohuslav Sobotka from a serious or even one-sided investigation into the privatization of OKD, but this must at least be one of the impetuses behind it. How would it look if yet another ex-PM had to appear in court during an election year? Sobotka is going out of his way to avoid taking too much ownership of the reorganization plan, for fear of being accused of a conflict of interest. He insists that it is fully within the authority of the police president and interior minister. Although it was already clear a week ago that the reorganization was a big deal (in our weekly analysis on June 3, we called it one of the most significant events in Czech business and politics since the founding of ANO in 2011), the subject didn't even come up when Sobotka appeared on OVM on June 5. He missed yesterday's OVM and won't be in Prague this coming weekend either. He'll be swapping notes with China's Communist Party about how to keep things like the police under control. [Czech Republic ÚOOZ ÚOKFK organized crime Czech Television TV]