Czechs enter 2026 with a president, Petr Pavel, who wants them in the German sphere of influence, favors adopting the euro and tried to open a discussion about giving up the EU veto. Pavel was supported by, and supported, a previous government that looked to Germany and France for European leadership, that in effect had a minister of deindustrialization in the German style and that continues to support the same policies in the opposition. Czechs enter 2026 with a prime minister, Andrej Babiš, whose industrial business was heavily dependent on Germany and western European banks but who now vows to kill the Green Deal and to put the CR and its citizens first. Babiš wants to make the CR the best place to live on the planet and is acting on the assumption that the majority of voters wanted not only to throw out the likes of Petr Fiala, Zbyněk Stanjura and Jozef Síkela, but also to throw out their policies. Some of the new coalition's voters no doubt did, but until Babiš explains intelligently to the rest of them what the alternative is, he won't convince the majority of Czechs. If not the EU and everything it stands for, then what? And with whom?