Flattening the curve

The world's experts are talking about flattening the coronavirus curve, but there's another curve that is becoming just as important in Czech politics. It's the one showing the willingness of the Czech people to continue to tolerate what amount to the strictest restrictions on their movement and behavior in their 1,000-year history. A visit to a park over the past several days tells us as much as any opinion survey can: People want to gather in larger numbers than two, and their patience is starting to run flat. Interior Min. Jan Hamáček and the PR team behind him celebrated a big victory on March 30 when he took over the central crisis team, but PM Andrej Babiš was a step ahead of them. He was already in relaxation mode, and Hamáček walked right into his trap. Hamáček clearly hasn't understood the vote-getting populism of this yet, otherwise he would have raised his hand in Parliament yesterday to extend the state of emergency only until the end of the month, as Babiš did.