Column: Babiš Government Overhauls Budget Rules Despite Experts' Warnings

Czech Finance Minister Alena Schillerová has declared that changing the budget rules "has no alternative," responding to a critical open letter from experts. Representatives of the ruling coalition had already announced their readiness to override President Petr Pavel's veto at the Chamber of Deputies' August session.

The column's author describes the situation as a rerun of an old script: specialists warn of the risks, yet careerists in power — who gained their mandate through the ballot box — brush aside expert assessments, since in their worldview professional knowledge simply doesn't count.

According to the author, the current government of Andrej Babiš is acting consistently, but not in line with democratic tradition. Instead, it draws on a model of governance inherited from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Back then, after February 1948, "bourgeois specialists" were shunned as elements alien to the working class, while leadership posts went to "worker directors" — people who may have lacked proper qualifications but were at least familiar with the practical side of the job.

Today's authorities, the column argues, are just as eager to install people in state positions who lack the necessary competence but make up for it with inflated self-regard. The author draws a parallel to what he wryly calls "Babiš-shovelism" — a doctrine that justifies the rule of those who know how to get their way by any means necessary, rather than through knowledge or expertise.

The standoff over the budget rule changes remains tense: the governing coalition is determined to force the measure through parliament, despite the president's veto and warnings from the professional community.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz