Final Word from Monday, October 20, 2025

The Fiala government is refusing to resubmit the draft 2026 budget to Parliament, and although it might look like irresponsible behavior, spitefulness or childishness, there's more to it than that. There's a determination on the part of ODS not to allow a review of the numbers that resembles the cover-up in the bitcoin scandal of ex-Justice Min. Pavel Blažek. That scandal gave ODS's silent rebels - Tomáš Jirsa, Martin Kuba, Jiří Oberfalzer, Jan Skopeček, Alexander Vondra - a chance to stand out in the crowd and to have a say in the post-election direction of the party, but the cult of personality around Petr Fiala was so strong that they dared not to raise their heads. That circumspection was visible yesterday on CNN Prima News when Justice Min. Eva Decroix - a possible future ODS chairwoman - used her regular bitcoin evasiveness to defend the decision not to resubmit the budget. She knows which side her bread is buttered on. The party wheeler-dealers and advisers who created Fiala need to remain fully in control so that their hand-picked successors can take over smoothly from Fiala and Finance Min. Zbyněk Stanjura at the top of ODS. [ Czech Republic Spolu elections ]