Who had ever heard of Michal Šmarda before lobbyist Radek Pokorný handpicked him to become a vice chairman of ČSSD? Almost no one. Šmarda was an invisible mayor of the 10,000-person town of Nové Město na Moravě, but he was the perfect choice for undermining ČSSD Chair Jan Hamáček and breaking apart the 140-year-old Social Democratic Party as a way to force Andrej Babiš into the arms of the "extremists" from SPD. If ČSSD had nominated someone like Bohuslav Sobotka, Milan Chovanec, Miroslav Poche, Josef Bernard or Tomáš Prouza to replace Antonín Staněk as culture minister, everyone would have understood it immediately as provocation meant to arouse the ire and antagonism of Miloš Zeman. But Šmarda? He's Zeman's friend, after all. The fact that Zeman had praised Šmarda without naming him at ČSSD's party conference on March 1 was an irresistible extra. Only close observers of ČSSD a.s. understand how diabolic a nomination this was.