Czech press survey - August 31

The task with which Interior Minister Jan Kubice has empowered Cervicek is giant, Jiri Leschtina writes in Mlada fronta Dnes, adding that Cervicek will have to resolve the puzzle showing that according to European statistics, the Czech Republic has the fifth highest number of police per head, while police officers often are not seen in the streets.

Although Kubice has allegedly promised 700 million crowns to Cervicek, this does not mean that he will not have to cut the costs, Leschtina writes.

He will have to save money at the regional and national police headquarters, he adds.

However, such a deep cut will provoke the opposition of the inflated structures in which Lessy allegedly found some backing, Leschtina writes.

The redundant bosses and officials will struggle for survival in the hope that their protector will return, he adds.

As far as Cervicek is concerned, he will have to pray for the survival of the existing government with which he is fatefully bound, Leschtina writes.

Lessy was kicked out in a wrong fashion and Prime Minister Petr Necas will now be under pressure, Martin Komarek writes in Mlada fronta Dnes.

It may happen that a court will rule that Lessy was right and will cancel his sacking. Then the Czech Republic may have two police presidents, Komarek writes.

How will this be resolved? Perhaps with a duel with sabres? he adds.

Necas tried to convince deputy prime minister Karolina Peake that Lessy's sacking has nothing in common with ruling, Komarek writes.

In a decent country, this is certainly not so, but here it is, he adds.

In fact, the doubts have been voiced not only by Peake, but also by the opposition Social Democrats who are making the most to use Kubice's clumsy step for their own propaganda, Komarek writes.

The replacement was comprehensible, Petruska Sustrova writes in Lidove noviny.

It is clear that Kubice has not done anything for which he did not have the right, Sustrova writes.

The fact that the interior minister has dismissed a person he mistrusted and with whom it was difficult to collaborate is nothing strange, she adds.

As far as the Social Democrats' criticism is concerned, it should be highlighted that Lessy himself was selected by a commission about which Social Democrats said it was "untrustworthy" and even suspicious in 2011, Sustrova writes.

The times are obviously changing: whatever the government does, the opposition is against it, she adds.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz