Final Word from Monday, September 25, 2017

A comparison of the German and Czech elections is difficult, because ČSSD - or at least PM Bohuslav Sobotka - has been closer to Angela Merkel's CDU than to ČSSD's sister party, SPD. There is in fact no official record of a meeting ever taking place between Martin Schulz and Sobotka as party chairmen. Nor have Milan Chovanec (as acting ČSSD chair) or Lubomír Zaorálek (as ČSSD election leader) met with Schulz. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Sobotka and Zaorálek greeted Merkel's victory as if their own sister party had won. But of course it didn't. SPD suffered a big setback and announced its departure to the opposition. Sobotka said on Twitter that he understands this decision, because SPD managed to push through its social and pro-European program in the grand coalition, but CDU repeatedly got the credit for it. Almost as if Sobotka suddenly realized his own party's position and were preparing its voters for a similar fate to SPD's. [Czech Republic Christian Democrats Social]