ODS organizes a turkey shoot

ODS's well-paid political marketers had all summer to realize that they were setting PM Petr Fiala up for a big fall in the Oct. elections and to take evasive action, but yesterday's launch of the next phase of the Spolu campaign shows that they're incorrigible. A highly unpopular prime minister whose party is caught up in one of the country's biggest political scandals ever shouldn't be the sole mascot of a three-party coalition that wants desperately to remain in power. That's how a party that wants to put an abrupt end to the attempt at a cult of personality does it. ODS has by far the most to lose in the elections, yet it's essentially organizing a turkey shoot for STAN, the Pirates and the two other Spolu coalition partners (KDU-ČSL and TOP 09). All they have to do is to tell voters to take everything out on Fiala and Zbyněk Stanjura and to give their votes, or preference votes, to one of these other "democratic" parties instead. STAN Chair Vít Rakušan has been so cheeky as to say he wants more seats next time than ODS. The real risk for Fiala is that STAN, the Pirates, KDU and TOP 09 will all outnumber ODS in the next Parliament.