Final Word from Monday, December 12, 2022

Pres. Miloš Zeman told Czech Radio yesterday that he's not ruling out appointing a successor to Chief Justice Pavel Rychetský of the Constitutional Court before leaving office in March. The chief justice, Zeman said, should not turn the highest court into the third chamber of Parliament or succumb to the temptation to make political proclamations. This can be seen as an indirect attack on constitutional lawyer Jan Kysela and Justice Josef Baxa of the Supreme Administrative Court, both of whom would apparently like to succeed Rychetský and carry on in his tradition. At first glace, Zeman's comment seems like a vote of no-confidence in Andrej Babiš. If he were elected president, there's little chance someone like Kysela or Baxa would be appointed. Perhaps what Zeman is trying to do, though, is to force the other candidates to state in advance whom they would like to see as Rychetský's successor. Do the presidential candidates want an impartial Constitutional Court, or a political one? [ Czech Republic Josef Fiala Petr Pavel Danuše Nerudová ]