What happens when a member of an unpopular government promotes an unpopular policy?Do two negatives make a positive? STAN is hoping they do. If 22% of Czechs agree withadopting the euro and 73% are against it, as determined last year by CVVM, there are elec-toral votes to be gained either by convincing more people overall of the attractiveness of the euro or by luring away voters from other parties who already favor getting rid of the crown.Petr Fiala hasn’t shown the best political savvy since becoming PM (ODS hasn’t gained any ground in the polls in the past two years), but on the euro he seems to understand bettert han STAN Chair Vít Rakušan what is at stake. The problem with the euro as a political topicis that the positive aspects of it -liminating currency-exchange and hedging costs, for example – are set in stone, while the potential negatives are not. Even a minor eurozone bankng crisis between now and elections could cause the euro to blow up in Rakušan’s face.

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