Final Word from Monday, January 12, 2026
"Doesn't Filip Turek hurt your party?" asked debate-show host Terezie Tománková of CNN Prima News yesterday. Definitely not, responded Motorists Chair Petr Macinka, because without Turek the Motorists wouldn't be in Parliament or in the government, and without Turek there wouldn't be this government. That's all true, but what was missing was a self-confident final statement along the lines of, "This government is as much Filip Turek's as it is Andrej Babiš's." What TV viewers got instead was a vague promise from Macinka to "undertake some further steps that should resolve it somehow." Unless Moto has a way to get Pres. Petr Pavel to resign, the party's most powerful weapon for forcing the hand of Babiš and Pavel is the confidence vote this week. Yet Macinka and Turek have already signaled that they aren't willing to risk it. They don't have much time to prove that they're the professionals they pretend to be, and not just rank amateurs, because the Castle is already running circles around them. [ Czech Republic Partie television ]
Glossary of difficult words
to force someone's hand - to make someone do something he or she does not want to do or to act sooner than intended;
rank - complete and utter;
to run circles/rings around - to be much better or successful at a particular activity.