Kubera the impeacher

The death of Senate Pres. Jaroslav Kubera of ODS on Mon. came one day before the impeachment trial of Donald Trump began in the U.S. Senate. There is no direct link between the two events, but the impeachment atmosphere in the U.S. did indeed contribute to the unprecedented step in the Czech Senate that Kubera oversaw on July 24, 2019. Kubera's most significant act as the second-highest-ranking Czech constitutional official was to attempt to remove the highest-ranking constitutional official, Miloš Zeman. It was also Kubera's biggest political failure, although he apparently didn't himself vote in favor of the impeachment motion. Balloting was silent, but he made his preference for a narrower constitutional charge against Zeman known in advance. If the U.S. Senate now exonerates Trump, Kubera will go down in history as a sort of Nancy Pelosi who managed to attach the "stigma of impeachment" to the president's name but ultimately failed to deliver.