Zeman dispenses with Chovanec (again)
The ghost of Milan Chovanec is still at the center of Czech politics. His specter killed any hope last night of a Czech government that is not reliant on the pariah party SPD. Most of ČSSD's members and supporters will not want to admit that this was the reason their party was completely shut out of power. They will blame it on Andrej Babiš, which is no doubt partly true. Another immediate culprit is of course Miloš Zeman. He could have forced Babiš last night to return to the table with the ghost of Chovanec but did not. Instead, Zeman scratched ČSSD out (in the words of MP Miroslava Němcová of ODS). Zeman's opponents within ČSSD have now obtained what they wanted - a party that is unshackled from Zeman and able to set its own course. What will this be? ČSSD's disintegration will quickly accelerate once people realize what Chovanec's ghost has done to this 140-year-old party. ČSSD's only real hope is that ANO-SPD-KSČM falls apart first.
Glossary of difficult words
to dispense with - to manage without or to get rid of;specter - ghost;
reliant - dependent;
to shut someone out of something - to exclude someone from something;
the table - (in this context) negotiations;
to scratch out - to remove someone or something from a list or record;
unshackled - not chained or shackled.