Final Word from Thursday, December 14, 2023

Interior Min. Vít Rakušan told Respekt that it's not true that the Ukrainians in the CR are living at the expense of Czech citizens and that this lie has the potential to change the political order, so the government must take action to counter such disinformation. Rector Petr Dvořák of VŠE decided yesterday to remove Miroslav Ševčík as dean of the business school's Faculty of Economics because Ševčík referred to EU Commissioner Věra Jourová as "Joudová" ("jouda" means "dupe") and PM Petr Fiala as a "hňup" (dolt). Priest Tomáš Halík used his sermon at Karel Schwarzenberg's funeral on Sat. to suggest (at 12:39), without using any names, that Andrej Babiš, Robert Fico and Viktor Orbán are "populists, demagogues and chauvinists" who want to "tear our nation from the family of a unifying Europe," just as the Nazis and Communists did. The trenches in Czech society are deepening, and those with the guns, textbooks and Bibles haven't yet found a way to bring the two sides closer together. [ Czech Republic police ANO, Hungary Slovakia university STAN ]