The emancipation of Jan Hamáček
Two months after the start of the Czech Culture War, the first concrete results are being seen. Not only will Antonín Staněk leave as the minister at midnight tonight, but the battling factions have also finally started talking about the crux of the issue. Hardly anyone paid attention when Jan Hamáček told Právo on July 13 that Milan Chovanec, Miroslav Andrt, Milan Štěch and other ladder-shakers were trying to topple him as he collected the fruit of ČSSD's time in the government, but ears pricked up when Andrej Babiš said the same thing two weeks later and added some details about the Sobotka/Chovanec wing of the party. ČSSD Vice Chair Ondřej Veselý told Czech Radio yesterday that Babiš is lying and that no cliques exist within ČSSD. In fact, the Culture War was started by the clique we call ČSSD a.s. It wanted to force Hamáček into full submission, but the effort backfired. His greater emancipation from the ladder-shakers is the first good news for ČSSD in years.
Glossary of difficult words
emancipation - liberation; the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions;crux - the decisive or most important point at issue;
to topple - to overbalance or cause to overbalance and fall; to bring down; to remove from power;
one's ears prick up - one becomes suddenly attentive;
clique - a small, close-knit group of people who do not readily allow others to join them.