Czech press survey - January 10

In fact, Klaus has become a symbol of "mafia capitalism." An increasing number of people have become fed up with its endemic corruption, cronyism and impotent state, Pehe writes.

If the politician who is considered the architect of the system gives a general pardon to the fraudsters and embezzlers two months before his term of office expires, a large part of the public can only see it as a cynical full stop confirming the above so-called values, he adds.

If Klaus wants to "go on" with such values, he will not be very successful, Pehe writes.

Czech society is fed up with them, he adds.

President Vaclav Klaus has banned the public to discuss his activities, this is how his Tuesday televised statement can be understood, Martin Zverina writes in Lidove noviny, commenting on Klaus's reaction to the public outrage over the amnesty he has declared.

What has actually happened? Zverina asks. Many criticised Klaus for the extent of the amnesty that also pardoned some notorious fraudsters, Zverina writes.

Was the extent of the criticism so big that the public never saw it before? No, it was not, he adds.

Did anyone speak vulgarly about the head of state? No, Zverina writes.

Only some 600 mayors and teachers have decided to withdraw Klaus's portraits from their walls. It was an absolutely toothless gesture, only voiced in protest to the act of amnesty with which they cannot do anything in practical terms, he adds.

Klaus's message is obvious. Whoever disagrees with him is wrong, but he is still ready to save all of us after he returns to the political life, Zverina writes.

The protests against Klaus's amnesty should be accompanied with careful analyses of all the disputable protracted criminal cases, Karel Steigerwald writes in Mlada fronta Dnes.

We already know how many trials have lasted for eight, ten years, but is it more or less than abroad? And why? Steigerwald asks.

Are there trials that are deliberately hindered? he goes on to ask.

And if so, by whom, by the defendants? Are they helped by authorities or the law itself? Steigerwald asks.

Why do the views of appeals court so often absolutely differ? Why does one court mete out an eight-year prison sentence, while another commutes it to a suspended sentence? he asks.

These are the questions that are one hundred times more useful than pulling down the portraits of the president, Steigerwald concludes.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz