Final Word from Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Andrej Babiš declared that his people wanted to review all the contracts in Olomouc but that the other parties made a fool of ANO by cooking up a coalition deal without it in six minutes. We've heard a version of this broken record over and over again. ANO vows in the campaign to get to the bottom of suspicious contracts but then fails to deliver after the elections. Babiš criticized Martin Roman's reign at ČEZ but still hasn't produced any smoking gun. Nor do we know who profited from suspicious deals at ČSA and Prague Airport. And what about all those off-spec road jobs that were never approved by ŘSD but have cost the state billions? It's understandable that municipal politicians "who know each other a long time" (to use Babiš's words) would want to shun the new kids on the block, but the question is whether it's necessary. ANO is all bark and no bite when it comes to cleansing the government of corrupt practices. [Czech Republic Český Aeroholding transparency municipal elections]
Glossary of difficult words
to cook up something - to contrive, plan or plot something;
broken record - a story that is repeated as if it were a scratched record;
to get to the bottom of something - to discover the truth about a situation;
smoking gun - a piece of incontrovertible criminal evidence;
off-spec - not meeting the established specifications or requirements;
to shun - to persistently avoid, ignore or reject;
new kid on the block - the newest person in a group;
all bark and no bite (somebody's bark is worse than his or her bite) - someone's actions are not as strict or harsh as his or her words.