The next Kalousek

15.11.2018 - EB

PM Andrej Babiš was in Sicily when Andygate broke, which led some people to compare the scandal involving the alleged abduction of his son, Andrej Jr., to the "Sarajevo assassination attempt" on the political life of Václav Klaus in late 1997. In that case, though, two of Klaus's own ministers called for his resignation while he was out of town. This time it was two reporters who fired the first shot at Babiš, armed with information from a police file. In this respect it's closer to the Nagygate police raid on the cabinet office in June 2013 that led to the fall of PM Petr Nečas. As we reminded readers in Dec. 2013, and again in Sept. of this year, it was a flip-flop by coalition partners Miroslav Kalousek and Karel Schwarzenberg that ultimately forced Nečas to resign. It's looking increasingly likely that Babiš will survive Andygate, but if he doesn't, the role of Kalousek from 2013 will apparently be played by Martin Netolický of ČSSD. He's the main coalition partner to watch this time.

Glossary of difficult words

Andygate - "Andy" is the nicknamed used for Andrej Babiš Jr. by his former caregiver and alleged abductor, Petr Protopopov; 

to break - (in this context) when an event happens or is first reported; 

Nagygate - political scandal named after Jana Nagyová Nečasová, Nečas's head of office, and later his wife; 

flip-flop - an abrupt reversal of policy or position.



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