Czech press survey - February 26

The key problem of the senior government party is neither its crushing defeat in the regional and Senate elections last autumn nor the fiasco of its candidate Premysl Sobotka in the presidential election in January - nor the mere 11 percent of preferences, Komarek writes.

He says much worse is the bad reputation: many people consider the ODS repulsive.

Moreover, the ODS seems incapable of moving the Czech Republic out of the crisis towards prosperity and stop with empty politics. This crushes ODS members so much that some of them are leaving the party, Komarek says.

Due to its former leader Vaclav Klaus, the ODS has turned into a sect that is paranoid and that suspects all around of wanting to harm it, Komarek writes.

The last reason the low popularity of the ODS is that it has failed to fight its image of a mafia-like body, he concludes.

Jaromir Drabek (TOP 09) could have been a rather successful labour minister because he managed to lower the volume of money spent on welfare benefits during an economic crisis without increasing the number of the poor, Lenka Zlamalova writes in Lidove noviny.

Drabek therefore seemed to take away state subsidies from people who did not need them or who misused them, Zlamalova writes.

He would have been successful if he had not managed to resist the temptation of dubious public orders at one of the most sensitive offices in the country, which pays out benefits to people who rely on them and who very often have no financial reserves, Zlamalova says.

On Monday, the anti-monopoly office UOHS abolished the order for the system of welfare payment over mistakes in the tender. This tender is related to the accusations the police levelled against dismissed deputy labour minister Vladimir Siska.

The result of Drabek´s ministerial work is a destruction of the system and trust that unfortunately goes beyond the Labour Ministry, Zlamalova writes.

The current Czech government forced all people who are not right-wing voters to be willing to vote not only the Communist Party (KSCM) but also any group that would promise them at least fundamental social security, Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in Pravo.

He recalls that Deputy PM Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) admitted that all who have participated in Czech politics in some democratic party since the 1990s are to blame for the rising support to the Communists.

The curtailing of social stability has led large social groups to a state when they prefer emotions, including the most primitive ones, to reason, Mitrofanov says.

He writes that rightist voices calling on the Social Democrats (CSSD) not to ally with the KSCM show they cannot understand the situation.

A possible alliance with right-wing parties would be a political suicide for the CSSD. It is a vicious circle, Mitrofanov says.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz