Final Word from Tuesday, November 26, 2019

For the first time, TOP 09 has a chairperson who was not involved in any way whatsoever in the collapse of the government of Petr Nečas in June 2013. Karel Schwarzenberg and Miroslav Kalousek were key figures in forcing Nečas to resign; Jiří Pospíšil had been an ODS minister and was being mentioned as a possible replacement for Nečas as both PM and ODS chair; Markéta Pekarová Adamová, in contrast, had not even been elected to Parliament yet. Rarely in Czech politics does someone relinquish power voluntarily, but TOP brought down its government with ODS without first getting assurance from Pres. Miloš Zeman about who the new PM would be. This crucial decision, which Schwarzenberg and Kalousek never satisfactorily explained, ultimately contributed to a consolidation of power by Zeman and Andrej Babiš. If Pekarová Adamová ever decides to step out of the shadow of Schwarzenberg and Kalousek, this historical blunder gives her the ammunition to do so. [ Czech Republic Lidem VV chairman ]