Fiala's fate will depend on Trump

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed yesterday to speed up the timetable for early elections, and they're now expected on Feb. 23. Over in the Czech Republic, a Median poll came out yesterday showing that ANO would have 85 of the 200 seats in the lower house of Parliament and, more importantly, would have three anti-establishment parties as potential partners, Motorists, Communists and SPD. The canvassing for the poll ended before the U.S. elections on Nov. 5, so no impact of the victory by Donald Trump can yet be gleaned from the survey results. If early Czech elections were held soon after those in Germany, there might still be a chance for the parties of the ruling Czech coalition to perform well, but the window is closing quickly. PM Petr Fiala said after speaking with Trump on Mon. that he's looking forward to close collaboration, but at least a small part of him will have to hope that Trump falls on his face by Czech election time late next year and takes Andrej Babiš down with him.