Czech press survey - February 13

The path towards the direct election was not a result of intelligent political decision-making about what will bring well-being to the country. It is only an effort to meet demand of the public disgusted by politics though the public is the first cause of the miserable situation in politics, Steigerwald points out.

It is naive to think that a plebiscite would remove awkwardness and crudity that accompanied the latest presidential elections in parliament, Steigerwald notes.

People will choose head of state like parliament did, on the basis of prevailing politics.

"The only thing we know about the president´s office for sure today is that he is a political figure. People know it, too. The whole operation with the election change was useless. It replaced really serious constitutional changes that were not been made," Steigerwald writes in MfD.

Political parties´ leaders have created the "phenomenon" of Jan Fischer, an inconspicuous penpusher who has a high chance of becoming the next Czech president, Jiri Leschtina writes in Hospodarske noviny (HN) today.

Fischer, statistician by profession, who was head of the caretaker government in 2009-10 and now is the vice-president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), is a favourite of direct presidential election. According to polls, a quarter of Czechs would elect him president.

Leschtina recalls that a deputy of the senior government Civic Democrats (ODS) pointed to Fischer´s membership of the pre-1989 Communist Party (ODS), which is unacceptable for a presidential candidate.

However, Leschtina adds, it was the Civic Democrats and the Social Democrats (CSSD) who catapulted Fischer, then head of the Statistical Office (CSU), to the government´s helm. If he could be a prime minister why not a president? Leschtina asks.

Fischer´s popularity only proves people´s frustration of the parties, parliament and government, Leschtina points out

Fischer might be a dull clerk but at the same time he is not connected with scandals and corruption that affect both the ODS and opposition parties.

Besides, neither the CSSD nor the ODS are able to generate strong personalities to compete with Fischer in the presidential polls, Leschtina writes.

Daniel Kaiser in Lidove noviny (LN) points to the absurd character of the Czech police president´s new rule that would actually prevent policemen from fining foreigners for traffic offences without providing an interpreter for them.

Under the rule, the police are obliged to secure an interpreter for all foreigners who have committed even a minor offence if they claim they do not understand Czech.

Kaiser recalls that some time ago, the police introduced a quite reasonable practice of showing printed information on the traffic offence to a foreign driver telling him what he committed and how he can pay the fine.

The core of police work should lie in everyday petty work for which they need rules.

The current police president, a former patrolman, should feel the same and "defend common sense against all technocrats at the Police Presidium," Kaiser writes in conclusion.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz