Final Word from Monday, June 13, 2022

Ex-Finance Min. Miroslav Kalousek of TOP 09, who has retired from active politics but remains influential, wrote on Twitter that he's now free to say publicly that the Pirates are not only yokels, but above all completely incompetent amateurs who pose a threat to democracy and whose demise would be a bonus for all democrats. One of the main policy objectives of the Pirates is now a special tax on coal barons and others who are profiting from the sharp rise in energy rates. One of those coal barons, Pavel Tykač, took the idea of a tax in stride and told LN that he'd be surprised if a politician didn't raise the issue. Now another politician has. Or rather ex-politician. Kalousek told Jaromír Soukup of TV Barrandov on Thur. that if the Fiala government started to think about a sector tax on energy, he'd consider it legitimate. He couldn't imagine saying this two years ago, he said, but now the profits are huge due the geopolitical situation, and these companies should share the gains with society. Does this also make Kalousek a threat to democracy? Or just to Tykač and Daniel Křetínský, the two coal barons he mentioned by name? [ Czech Republic minister MP EPH Sev.en Energy ]