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The revelations revealed on April 17 that Russia was behind the 2014 explosions at Czechias Vrbetice munitions depot continue to spread chaos. The Seznam portal dropped its own bombshell on Monday with a report that the deputy prime minister and interior minister, Jan Hamacek, had previously planned to use an April 19 trip to Moscow to offer to bury Pragues findings in return for 1 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine and a promise to hold a Russia-US summit between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in the Czech capital.

The article describes secret meetings in Hamaceks office and claims that several of the military, police and security officials present have confirmed that Hamacek discussed the plan. The interior minister has rubbished the report, claiming that the cancelled trip to Moscow was planned as a decoy ahead of the revelations.

Hamaceks Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) junior partner in the ANO-led coalition decided the best defence is a good offence and promptly distributed a credibility barometer, noting five claims of inaccuracies from journalist Janek Kroupas work over the past two decades. Many on social media said it was a technique reminiscent of those employed by the former communist regime.

Prime Minster Andrej Babis said he believed Hamaceks version of events. Of course, if true, the scandal would not reflect well on his management of the government.

The opposition demanded Hamaceks head, but a special meeting in parliament on Tuesday produced little more than mudslinging. Hamacek now plans to sue Seznam. Its suggested a legal hearing would mean that the officials that attended the meeting, but who have refused to comment in public on what was discussed, will now be required to speak up. One thing everyone agrees on is that the disagreement and disarray consuming Czech politics since the revelations are a gift to Moscow.

Hamacek also demanded apologies from the opposition for suggesting he acted with anything but the best interests of the Czech Republic at heart. My own reputation and my partys good name have been damaged, so I have no option but to sue the authors of the article for slander and scaremongering, and I expect an apology from those of my colleagues who labelled me a traitor, he harrumphed.

The deputy prime minister needs to show hes putting up a good fight. He recently retained the leadership of the CSSD with a pledge to stem the partys haemorrhaging support by targeting the more conservative left-of-centre voters. That cohort is loyal to Milos Zeman, the Russia-linked president who has pressed the Czech authorities to start using the Sputnik V vaccine. He also sought to cast doubt on the revelations surrounding Vrbetice.

There have been suggestions that the reported offer of a tradeoff to Moscow sounds a lot like the sort of plan Zeman might dream up. Therefore, Hamacek could now do with distancing himself a little from the head of state.

But can he do it quickly enough? CSSD is at serious risk of failing to pass the 5 per cent threshold to enter parliament at the next election, and a vote could come sooner than thought, with new election laws that would allow the vote to go ahead set to pass on May 5.

The new legislation was ordered by the Constitutional Court and introduces a new method of converting votes into parliamentary seats that is a little less favourable to larger parties. According tomodels, had the new system been used in the 2017 election, the ruling ANO party would hold 69 seats instead of 78, with most other parties benefitting from one or two extra mandates.

The passage of the new laws raises the likelihood of early elections. The Communist Party (KSCM), which previously supported the minority government, said last month it would agree to a no-confidence vote if called. However, the centrist opposition has been wary that without new election laws in place, power would pass to the president. With that risk now reduced, the opposition could make a move to force a vote before the scheduled election in October.

Certainly, it could be a good time to strike for the opposition. Data released this week from aEurobarometer surveytaken in February suggests that Czechs now have the EUs lowest level of trust in their government at just 19 per cent. On the other hand, no more than 15 per cent trust parliament and only one in ten has any belief in the countrys political parties. The data reveals the depths to which Czech cynicism has descended. The EU average for trust in government sits at 36 per cent; average trust in parliament is one percentage point lower.

Buffered by Pragues poor performance in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Czech reading of trust in the government dropped by more than half compared with the last Eurobarometer reading taken in summer 2020. Satisfaction with the countrys coronavirus measures fell in the same period from 71 per cent to just 24 per cent.

Yet it seems the novel coronavirus is also proving something of a vaccine against Euroscepticism. The survey shows that Czech trust in the EU grew by 9 percentage points to 48 per cent, the highest reading for eight years. Hence, the Czech Republic has lost its long-held Eurosceptic crown to Greece, where just 37 per cent of the population trusts Brussels. Italy, Austria, France and Cyprus are also less impressed than the Czechs.

A slim majority of Czechs remain wary, but the pandemic does appear to have convinced many that such small countries have many benefits to gain from a multilateral world. Czech trust in the UN grew 12 percentage points to 57 per cent, and respondents also expect the EU to provide access to vaccines and establish a common European strategy to deal with similar crises in the future.

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Democracy Digest: A Week of Illiberal Rants, Threats to Sue And Hands Across the Aisle - Balkan Insight

Voters arrive at the Eloy City Hall polling location on November 3, 2020, in Eloy, Ariz. (Photo by Courtney Pedroza / Getty Images)

Sitting at a table outside a Starbucks caf in a strip mall in the impoverished Maryville neighborhood on the west side of Phoenix, City Council member Betty Guardado tells her story.

The 44-year-old, with short hair pulled back and dressed casually in T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, says she grew up in South Central Los Angeles, in an immigrant household. After high school, she got a job as a housekeeper in a hotel, and by the late 1990s was working as a union organizer and as a volunteer on a number of political campaigns.

In 2007, Guardado moved to Phoenix to be with her husband and work full-time on organizing local hotel workers. At the time, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was marketing himself as Americas toughest sheriff, and his deputies were pulling over anyone and everyone whom they thought looked Mexican and demanding to see their papers. Youd get pulled over every two seconds because of the color of your skin, she recalls. To counter such practices, Guardado and her union colleagues concluded that they had to flex their electoral muscles and began working on voter registration. In Maryville alone, they expanded the number of Latino voters from about 300 to about 5,000, Guardado says.

Ten years after arriving in town, Guardado decided to run for the City Council district in Maryville, looking to highlight the economic neglect faced by the neighborhood, the lack of basic infrastructure such as banks and anchor businesses, and the fact that her story was similar to that of many others who live there. Look, Im a working-class mom just like you, she would tell residents. I struggle to pay my bills. I only have a high school diploma. I dont have a higher education.

It was a long process from the time she decided to run to the night in 2019 when, in a special election called to replace the sitting councillorwho was running for mayorshe received 63 percent of the vote. A year later, in the regularly scheduled election, she was reelected with 69 percent. Her victory marked a profound turning point for Phoenix, showcasing the hard-won power of working-class immigrant voices in a city that has long slighted the rights of both workers and immigrants.More From the Left Coast

But that shift, so liberating to many, has proven terrifying to the old-guard GOP in the state, who have grown used to electoral cakewalks and arent the least bit happy about the newly competitive nature of Arizona politics. That unwillingness to countenance progressive political change has reared its head recently in a particularly ugly manner.

Maricopa County, Ariz., which consists of Phoenix and the surrounding suburbs, has been in the news this week for a hyper-partisan, pro-Trump audit that GOP state legislators approved as a way to recount the votes, and politically challenge the results, of the 2020 presidential election.Current Issue

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The audit is nonsense from start to finish. Its being run by a gaggle of conspiracistschief among them the QAnon-believing executives of a Florida-based company called Cyber Ninjas that is providing the technical expertiseand alt-right activists. It operates on the assumption that fraud did take place and that the job of the audit is simply to find a way to count votes differentlya way that says Trump won the state. It wont alter the outcome of the election, since Congress certified that outcome and Joe Biden is the 46th president of the United States. But it will serve to further fracture the politics of the state and of the country, feeding Trumps die-hard base with more red meat to further their conspiracist fantasies.

This isnt just a waste of taxpayer money; its desperately dangerous stuff, part of the GOPs post-election drift ever further into loony tunes territory. This week, the House GOP, including minority leader Kevin McCarthy and party whip Steve Scalise, have begun explicitly orchestrating the removal of Liz Cheney from her Conference Chair leadership role in the partynot because they disagree with her stance on signature ideological issues (shes as conservative as they get) but because shes been unwilling to toe the personality-cult line when it comes to perpetuating Trumps Big Lie about the 2020 election. Also this week, onetime GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was mightily booed by delegates to his own state partys convention when he had the temerity to say that he wasnt a huge fan of the twice-impeached POTUS 45.

Now dont get me wrong, I dont have much sympathy for Romney or Cheney. Anybody who expects anything better of the GOP at this pointwho rationalizes their continued membership in a party defined by fanaticism, conspiracism, anti-science irrationalism, and personality cultismreally doesnt have a leg to stand on when those fanatics turn their cudgels against them. But the treatment meted out to Cheney and to Romney does speak to a monstrous crisis: The GOP, one of the two great governing parties in the United States, is now a profoundly antidemocratic force in the world.

In fact, in state after GOP-controlled state, and in the offices of members of Congress and state legislatures around the country, support for voter suppression laws has become de rigueur, a sort of after-the-fact homage to Trump and to Trumpism. Its as much of a litmus test for the GOP these days as, say, belief in the science of climate change is for Democrats; the difference being, of course, that the Republican litmus test is based on nothing but a lie. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently wrote that Trumps Big Lie has devoured the GOP, and that the political behaviors growing out of this act now threaten the very survival of American democracy. Republicans are going full speed ahead to try to ensure, by any means necessary, their minoritarian dominance of the political process in coming electoral cycles.

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In Arizona, where the GOP has managed to lose two US Senate seats, the presidential election, and numerous local and state-level offices in recent years, the narrow GOP majority in the Legislature is trying to rig the system by rolling back the states long-standing commitment to easy-access mail-in voting, and by imposing ever more onerous ID and other requirements on those trying to exercise their franchise. So far, at least 23 voting-related bills have been announced in the past couple months. Some of themsuch as the one that would allow Arizona legislators to simply ignore the will of the voters and appoint their own electors to the Electoral Collegeare so batshit crazy that, in all likelihood, not even the Republican governor, Doug Ducey, would sign them. But many of them will soon become the law of the land.

All of which makes Maricopa County, dominated by the sprawling Phoenix metro area, particularly interesting. The GOP and its phony auditors are fixating on looking for voting irregularities there because it is as a result of deep shifts in Phoenixs political preferences that the state party and its nativist flag bearers have been handed one humiliating defeat after another in recent years.

A decade ago, Phoenixs nine-member City Council was reliably Republican. These days, it is strongly Democratic. As its political composition has shifted, so too have its political priorities. Guardado talks about how the council has approved paying the water bills of poor residents during the pandemic, and how it has begun paying for swimming lessons for low-income childrensince death by drowning, in pools and in rivers and gullies, is a big problem for young people in the desert state. She talks about her ambitions to put in place meaningful programs to tackle homelessness; she speaks with pride about the $15-per-hour living wage that the council passed for full-time city employeesand the ongoing efforts to expand this to include part-timers as well; and she discusses the urgent need to invest in expanding the citys light-rail public transport system, and to bring economic development plans to fruition in poorer parts of the city.

Phoenixs example shows that when politicians address real-life concerns of ordinary people, the politics of a place can change rapidly and profoundly for the better. Thats the lesson the Arizona GOP, with its phony audits and its dozens of voter suppression bills, cant stand. As it can no longer win elections on the merits, it is trying to secure power by rigging the system to curtail the franchise.

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The Arizona GOPs Attack on Democracy - The Nation

During his anything-but-typical address to a joint session of Congress, President Biden used the word democracy, over and over again.

Some were run-of-the-mill evocations, as was the case when he spoke of revitalizing our democracy a promise made by more than one more president, and a bromide meant to soothe the nations soul. Others were more grave, as when he spoke of the Jan. 6 sacking of the U.S. Capitol, calling it the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.

But one mention of democracy in Bidens prime-time address really stood out. It came toward the end, as he spoke of the challenges facing the country as it stares down geopolitical allies who are hoping for our failure as a nation. But he could just as well have been speaking of the forces at home who similarly are hoping for his administration to fail, abetted by the aspiring autocrat in exile in south Florida.

Can our democracy deliver on the most pressing needs of our people? Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate and fears that have pulled us apart? Americas adversaries, the autocrats of the world, are betting we cant, Biden said. But we have to prove them wrong. We have to prove democracy still works, that our government still works, and we can deliver for our people.

Its no secret that democracies around the world are under siege, and that the promises of authoritarian regimes are appealing to a certain segment of the population.

Look no further than the surging popularity of French presidential candidate Marine LePen. On Capitol Hill, there are such Trump-aligned Republicans as Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who recently pushed the repulsive replacement theory during a House committee hearing.

Future historians will judge how democratic governments around the world respond to these threats. And the price of failure is high.

During his speech, Biden again appealed to Republicans to join in working to find compromise on the sweeping reimagining of the economy thats been the hallmark of his first 100 days. But he also made clear that he was ready to move on without them.

I just want to be clear, from my perspective, doing nothing is not an option. Look, we cant be so busy competing with one another that we forget the competition that we have with the rest of the world to win the 21st century, he said, warning that Chinese President Xi Jinping is deadly earnest on becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world. He and others, autocrats, think that democracy cant compete in the 21st century with autocracies because it takes too long to get consensus.

He made the same appeal to Americans, particularly those who did not vote for him, to join in that effort, evoking President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he did so: in America, we do our part. We all do our part. Thats all Im asking. That we do our part, all of us. If we do that, well meet the central challenge of the age by proving that democracy is durable and strong. Autocrats will not win the future. We will. America will. And the future belongs to America.

In any other time, an American president would not be required to make such an emotional and urgent appeal for his fellow citizens to rally around, and support, the foundational values of our nation, the ones that we drum into our childrens heads in civics class.

But as the last four years, capped off by the eruption of violence and treason at the Capitol on Jan. 6, have shown, these are not ordinary times. And while Biden evoked the memory of Americas 32nd president to make his case, Ill evoke the memory of another, the 16th, from whom Republicans, who have wandered so far, to make mine.

Speaking in Gettysburg, Pa. on Nov. 19, 1863, President Lincoln exhorted Americans to highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Thats the debt we owe those weve lost during the COVID-19 pandemic; for the American service members who laid down their lives to preserve our democracy. Thats the democracy that Biden is betting on.

And then, as now, it will take all of us to make sure that American democracy survives.

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.

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Biden says he wants all of us working on Democracy - Bainbridge Island Review

Aneesh Sompalli

Martinsburg

America was founded on a promise of democratic representation, a system where one person receives one vote, and people have the power to choose their leaders.

But over the past decade, weve seen that process co-opted by special interests and dark money groups trying to subvert our democracy, twisting it to their advantage while everyday Americans are left behind. The U.S. Senate needs to put a stop to this blatant corruption by passing the For the People Act, a landmark package of anti-corruption and reforms that will return power back to the hands of its rightful owners the American people.

Currently our electoral system favors those with the most spending power. The more money an individual, corporation, or special interest group has, the more theyre able to amplify their voice. From the deceptive attack ads that pollute our airwaves during election season to the deep-pocketed lobbyists that roam our halls of power, its hard not to see the negative impact of dark money on our democracy. All the while, everyday Americans are seeing their right to vote eroded as their voices are drowned out by the deluge.

No one should be able to buy their way into power, plain and simple. The For the People Act would put an end to dark money, closing the loopholes that special interest groups currently leverage to spend unlimited amounts of money in our electoral process without ever disclosing a single donor. This will, in turn, help to crack down on political corruption on both sides of the aisle, restoring trust and transparency in our government.

The For the People Act would also strengthen and protect our right to vote, making sure that all eligible Americans can make their voices heard without the diluting effect of dark money and by ensuring unimpeded access to the ballot box. This is especially important for West Virginians, many of whom rely on early voting programs to cast their vote ahead of Election Day.

This isnt a political issue its a matter of preserving our very democracy. How can our country claim to be a beacon of democratic ideals when weve let our own system crumble under the pressure of special interests, corruption and dark money?

Theres nothing democratic about a system that allows those with the most money to gain the most influence. We need to protect our democracy from these pernicious forces and pass the For the People Act. And its clear that the American people agree 83%, including nearly three-fourths of Republicans, support the For the People Acts sensible reforms.

With popular opinion and common decency on their side, its time for the U.S. Senate to act and pass the For the People Act immediately. We cant allow special interests and dark money groups to corrupt our electoral process any longer.

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For the People Act needed to save democracy - Martinsburg Journal

A quote from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on May 5: One hundred percent of my focus is on standing up to this (Biden) administration. What we have in the United States Senate is total unity from Susan Collins to Ted Cruz in opposition to what the new Biden administration is trying to do to this country.

Then-Majority Leader McConnell said this in 2010 about then-President Barack Obama: The single most important thing we (Republicans) want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president. What was President Obama trying to do to this country?

Minority Leader McConnell has directly connected Susan Collins to Ted Cruz, and to the notion that there can be no option other than rejectionist Republicanism. Its too late to reject Susan Collins this time, but we must remember: This is not our parents Republican Party.

I am frightened for our United States.

Richard DanaCape Elizabeth

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Letter to the editor: McConnell maintains focus on undercutting democracy - pressherald.com