Czech press survey - February 16

He says the current government coalition of the ODS, TOP 09 and LIDEM behaves as if it wanted to hide its results, the promises it has fulfilled.

When some economists criticised the government´s tax policy saying it harms the economic growth, the government immediately promised not to change taxes any more, which is naturally right, but it should at least slightly defend its steps, Zverina writes.

It is not true that the government has nothing to offer but it fears to merely think of any change as someone might disagree with it.

"Passivity means a political death," Zverina concludes.

"A sad end of a favourite," Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in Pravo today about the decline of former Czech PM Jan Fischer after his failure in the Czech presidential contest.

Mitrofanov says that Fischer, who enjoyed a high popularity as head of a caretaker cabinet in 2009-2010, is in a big trouble now. He lost the presidential election in which he, at variance with opinion polls, did not even advance to the second round. Besides, he has debts amounting to millions of crowns for his campaign.

Over his candidacy for president, Fischer gave up a lucrative post in an international bank and he secured sponsors and supporters. Today he is jobless, his supporters abandoned him after he backed Milos Zeman in the presidential runoff and his sponsors turned their back on him, Mitrofanov notes.

He recalls that as a short-term head of government, Fischer got infected with the bacillus of power and he nodded to a project in which he was to become head of state. However, neither he nor his investors realised that he was no capable of it and he suffered a debacle.

It is sad in human terms but a sentiment has nothing to do in a political struggle, Mitrofanov points put.

Yet Fischer did not fail because of his idealism but he has been little pushy in another sense. "If he had touched the right chord in voters´ soul, he may have sat at Prague Castle (the presidential seat," Mitrofanov writes in conclusion.

Is it really so hard for former Czech politicians to resist to lucrative posts offered to them in state-run companies? Robert Casensky asks in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) today.

He cites two recent example of such practice.

Former Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra (Civic Democrats, ODS), who resigned at the end of last year over his failure in the Senate polls, recently accepted the offer to work in the Czech Aeroholding supervisory board, and Ivan Fuksa, former ODS rebel MP, joined the Czech Aeroholding board of directors last November after he gave up his deputy's mandate.

Casensky admits that the argument of those advocating this practice may be logical. They claim that former politicians are often top-quality experts who served the state excellently and now can be useful in the management of state-controlled firms.

However, the politicians´ personal motivation for accepting such an offer seems more obscure, Casensky adds.

Why do outgoing politicians have such a liking for comfortable posts? Have they already reconciled with a certain form of pension? Casensky asks, adding that he cannot understand it.

Former politicians could show that they are not dependent on politics and that they are able to succeed in "normal" business and competition thanks to their own skills, Casensky writes in MfD.

($=19.046 crowns)

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz