Final Word from Thursday, January 29, 2026
Four days before the 70th anniversary on Sun. of the birth of deceased KDU-ČSL Chair Josef Lux, who died in 1999 at the age of 43, his party more or less anointed Southern Moravian Gov. Jan Grolich as its next leader. Grolich still needs to be formally elected at the April party conference, but his strategic thinking begins now. Few would deny that one of Lux's biggest political attributes was his nose for power, and the role of any KDU chairman is to be the flag bearer of this general Christian-Democratic trait. Lux, who became the highest-ranking politician in the interim government of Josef Tošovský, maneuvered his party to prosper in the immediate post-Sarajevo period before many had even imagined that Václav Klaus's position could be shaken. Under Marian Jurečka and Marek Výborný, KDU failed to see that the power structure was shifting again. ODS should have been the first to notice, but Petr Fiala and Martin Kupka completely missed the signals. If Grolich wants to succeed, it means embracing what is happening in the world, not fighting it like Fiala and Kupka, but also confronting Andrej Babiš when necessary, just as Lux did Klaus. [ Czech Republic technocratic ]
Glossary of difficult words
to anoint - to nominate or choose (someone) as the successor to or the leading candidate for a position;
trait - a distinguishing quality or characteristic, typically one belonging to a person;
interim - in or for the intervening period; provisional;
post-Sarajevo - the period after the "assassination attempt" on Václav Klaus;
to embrace - to accept (a belief, theory or change) willingly and enthusiastically.