Despite being unprepared for the COVID-19 outburst in spring 2020, Czechia did particularly well in handling the first weeks of the pandemic. However, the government which was the key actor in the whole process did not use the following summer months to prepare the country for autumn and winter, and the Czech success turned into a catastrophe that continued until Spring 2021. This chapter argues that this undesired development was caused particularly by a combination of cabinet being cradled by success in spring 2020 and its general populist tendencies. This mixture led to the underestimation of the risks associated with the autumn months by the government causing its unwillingness to adopt suitable but unpopular decisions in later stages of the pandemic. As a consequence, the government quickly lost the credibility among the general public whose compliance with the often confusing and problematic rules was constantly decreasing especially if compared to the spring 2020 months.