Final Word from Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Industry has been the backbone of the Czech economy for more than a century, and it survived the Nazis, the Communists, the tunnelers and the central bankers. Now the Social Democrats want to shut it down. ČSSD, as a political party, withdrew its proposal to close non-essential industrial companies until mandatory testing is imposed, but others associated with the party or its commercial affiliate, ČSSD a.s., won't give up so easily. Pardubice Gov. Martin Netolický took center stage yesterday, and Pres. Tomáš Prouza of the SOCR retailers' union is still asking for the goats of industrialists to die too if the goats of shopkeepers must do so. Reporters for an economics newspaper should know how dangerous it is for the economy to order a factory to close at short notice, but this didn't stop Petr Honzejk and Ondřej Houska of Zdeněk Bakala's Hospodářské noviny from entertaining the idea. In today's black-and-white world, all these people might be labeled enemies of Czech industry. [ Czech Republic criminal organization HN ]