Final Word from Tuesday, August 1, 2023
The appointment of the technocratic government of Jiří Rusnok 10 years ago in July is one of the examples often given for the way Pres. Miloš Zeman stretched the Czech Constitution to the limits. Jiří Štefek wrote in Reflex last month that Zeman had no constitutional basis for removing the Right from power and imposing a technocratic government and that it was in essence an act of political high-handedness. That's not the way Chief Justice Pavel Rychetský of the Constitutional Court saw it at the time. He told Czech TV on Aug. 14, 2013, that Zeman didn't violate the Constitution and basically had no other option in terms of naming a new government. Rychetský had just been reappointed as chief justice, and he and Zeman were hand in glove. It wasn't until 2-3 years later that the two of them had a falling-out. Rychetský, trying to rewrite history, told MFD last week that he didn't really want a second term in 2013 and that it's common knowledge that he was merely waiting for a new president. [ Czech Republic political provisional temporary cabinet ODS Petr Nečas Miroslava Němcová ]
Glossary of difficult words
technocratic - governance wherein decision-makers are chosen for office based on their technical expertise and background;
high-handedness - the use of power or authority without showing any interest in the rights, opinions or feelings of others;
to be hand in glove - to be in close collusion or association;
falling-out - a quarrel or disagreement.