At dawn, hundreds of masked men from the organised crime unit of the Czech police raided government offices. By breakfast, the arrests had begun.

At dawn, hundreds of masked men from the organised crime unit of the Czech police raided government offices. By breakfast, the arrests had begun. By mid-morning, the plenary session of parliament had been suspended. By early afternoon, rumours were flying that the prime minister was having a nervous breakdown.

By mid-afternoon, a robust enough prime minister appeared, and asserted that his closest aide had been innocently caught up in a heavy-handed investigation into dealings between military intelligence and rebels from his own party.

By late afternoon, an upright president (be thankful for small mercies, a sober head of state) had quipped that such goings-on are not good publicity. Then the speaker of the lower house demanded an explanation from the police for their simultaneous raids upon the cabinet office and the offices of various well-known crooks. "How are they connected?", she asked rhetorically. And by early evening, the foreign and finance ministers were implying that the police raids were destabilising the country.

So much for June 13, 2013.

And so much for the leaders of this country. Never mind their names. Consider the place they hold in the constitutional order of this state. Their behaviour is disconcerting, even bewildering, for the people they represent.

Never mind their private habits. Consider their public utterances. None of them applauded the police action or even remained neutral. Are we meant to understand that the president, the prime minister, the foreign minister, the finance minister and the speaker of parliament all fear that the independence of the law enforcement agencies of this country has been compromised?

Edward R Murrow, the great radio broadcaster, said: "Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation." I would add that anyone who isn't confused by the events of the last 24 hours really doesn't understand the gravity of the situation.

We might hope that a whole class of discredited politicians will have trouble sleeping now. Who knows what awaits them at dawn? And what awaits us, if they are allowed to destroy the legitimacy of our institutions?