Final Word from Monday, May 2, 2011

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Chief Justice Pavel Rychetský of the Constitutional Court explained on Czech TV'sOVM show yesterday that the institution of the constitutional court was recreated afterWWII as a reaction to the Holocaust. The classic parliamentary democracy of theWeimar Republic hadn't been able to defend against itself and even created mechanismsof self-destruction, he said. In an interview in LN, Deputy Chief Justice EliškaWagnerová compared Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek's use of a special tax onconstruction-savings accounts (instead of simply reducing the subsidy) to the practicesof the Nazis. That comparison is a bit strong, she later admitted, but the pointwas valid. It's also valid to ask whether the Constitutional Court, as the last bastionof democracy, has done enough to stop the spending and pro-corruption policies ofthe various Czech governments, which in their own way are also self-destructive.