Czech press survey - February 6

He says the winner of a presidential election is expected to meet the supreme constitutional officials first, such as the heads of state and government and both houses of parliament and only then the chairmen of political parties to show that his values and priorities are primarily the country´s interests.

However, Zeman is inviting "a colourful mixture" of people to his office, which indicates that he does not plan to be a "no-partisan" president, Leschtina writes.

He says Zeman definitively realises that the powers given to him by the constitution differ from those he is aspiring to.

This is why he may be seeking support in parliament for rewriting the constitution with the aim to strengthen the presidential powers, Leschtina points out.

There is a vacant seat at the political scene for a leader and statesman who would be able to play an equal opponent to Zeman´s ambitions. Such a personality has not emerged yet, Leschtina concludes in HN.

Czech president-elect Milos Zeman is behaving in a highly unprofessional way, Karel Skrabal writes in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) today.

Zeman often sharply criticises journalists for their alleged lack of professionalism calling them ignorant. However, no journalist would afford to spread such unverified gossip and apparent lies as Zeman did in his campaign ahead of the presidential polls with the aim to harm his rival, TOP 09 chairman and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, Skrabal notes.

Nevertheless, it seems that a worse example of Zeman´s unprofessional behaviour will be his lack of loyalty towards people in civil service who risk their lives at work, Skrabal points out.

This started with Zeman humiliating the president´s security guards over one professional failure, and it continues with his degrading intelligence services officers in general.

These people will probably wait for respect from the new head the state in vain, Skrabal indicates in MfD.

The Tuesday meetings between Czech president-elect Milos Zeman and the supreme constitutional officials, outgoing President Vaclav Klaus and PM Petr Necas, did not result in any statesmanlike utterances, Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in Pravo today.

After the Zeman-Klaus meeting the public only learnt that they would jointly lay a wreath at the grave of first Czechoslovak president Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and then have a luncheon at the presidential summer residence.

Besides, Klaus´s statement that he will remain Zeman´s "old and eternal enemy" seems rather controversial since Zeman came to the meeting to thank Klaus for his unbelievably strong support to him in the election campaign.

Zeman and Klaus´s words lacked any "statesmanlike content." They did not mention the EU flag, for instance, which Klaus has always rejected at the presidential seat and his successor has promised to hoist, Mitrofanov writes.

It will be interesting to watch what place Klaus assumes in Czech (or European) politics after leaving the presidential post and what attitude to his "eternal enemy" he will actually take in the future, Mitrofanov says.

He recalls that Necas only said after a meeting with Zeman that the future president used a brutal method of cigarette smoke against him, while Zeman did not speak to journalists at all.

"Consequently we will yet have to to wait for statesmanlike words," Mitrofanov writes in conclusion

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz