Czech press survey - February 14

Rath (elected for Social Democrats, forced to suspend CSSD membership after the police accused him) has become a symbol of how far dare politicians go in their belief that they cannot be punished. "I have immunity, but you are in a worse situation," he told his accomplices according to police wiretappings, Leschtina notes.

When MP Roman Pekarek (elected for Civic Democrats, ODS) entered parliament, this clearly showed the absurdity of the current immunity: Pekarek has been avoiding punishment for corruption he committed before he became an MP, replacing an ODS lawmaker who resigned from his position, Leschtina says.

It is good that the lower house of parliament again passed a bill reducing lawmakers´ immunity and one may only hope that the upper house will follow suit, Martin Komarek writes in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD).

Last year the senators did not pass the bill because not enough of them were present when the upper house session voted on the bill, Komarek recalls, indicating that this was an evasive strategy.

If the immunity reduction is passed it is good, but it has been high time. How come that it has been taking the parliament so long? Komarek asks.

Lawmakers are afraid that they would face false accusations and fall victim to plots of their political opponents if the immunity is reduced, Komarek says.

This paranoia is widespread especially among the Civic Democrats, he adds.

Jiri Dienstbier has been the most popular Czech politician for some time, but his popularity did not even help him advance to the second round of the direct presidential election, Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in Pravo, referring to the latest opinion polls conducted by the STEM and CVVM polling agencies.

Dienstbier even cannot be sure whether he will defend his post of deputy chairman at the forthcoming congress of the Social Democratic Party, Mitrofanov says.

According to the CVVM poll released on Wednesday, Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) is the second most popular politician. Though he advanced to the second round of the presidential contest, he lost in the election runoff in January, Mitrofanov writes.

He says the third most popular politician is Jiri Pospisil (Civic Democrats, ODS) who was forced to leave the post of justice minister last year.

Some people believe that Pospisil as leader would bring hope to the ODS and stop the fall of the party´s preferences. But desperate people do desperate things, Mitrofanov writes, indicating that this hope is unrealistic.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz