SŽ raids mar Fiala's final days as ODS chairman

As it turns out, June 29, 2022, was an important day in Czech politics. That's when Transport Min. Martin Kupka won cabinet approval for revamping the board of state-owned SŽ rail-line company. All but two of the ANO-era members were sacked, and Sen. Martin Červíček was installed as the new chairman, giving ODS top-down responsibility for overseeing the management, from PM Petr Fiala at the top, to Kupka as the minister and Červíček as chairman. That didn't work out so well, and Kupka and Červíček are now trying to limit the damage by removing CEO Jiří Svoboda, a connoisseur of cash and fine watches. The compulsory leak to the media about Svoboda went through Czech Radio. As it happens, it came just as Martin Kuba was slamming the door on ODS. Kupka, who couldn't even properly oversee SŽ, now wants to run ODS, and Červíček wants to be a vice chair. Fiala's final days as ODS chairman are starting to look like the collapse of ČSSD under Bohuslav Sobotka and Milan Chovanec.