Czech press survey - January 11

On the first day of the first round, virtually all arguments of the opponents of the direct election have been refuted, Honzejk writes.

The fear that a directly elected president will be by definition worse than that elected by lawmakers has not been confirmed, he adds.

Among the candidates with a real chance of being elected there is no one who would be worse than outgoing President Vaclav Klaus, Honzejk writes.

The fear that a person from the sphere of entertainment such as pop star Karel Gott may be elected has not been confirmed either, he adds.

Everything seems to have revealed that Czech society is mature and it will eventually choose out of the personalities that have all the required qualities, or are "presidentiable" as the French put it, Honzejk writes.

The performance of Jan Fischer in the public debates has been the biggest surprise or rather disappointment of the presidential contest, Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in Pravo.

After every public debate, one could only hear rejection of his performance from all sides. It had nothing to do with his erstwhile membership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC), Mitrofanov writes.

People were simple wondering how it was possible that emptiness surfaced behind trained gestures, he adds.

An unusual activity of educated voters, also from the young generation, has been the most pleasant surprise. One could never before see such an interest of young people in public affairs, Mitrofanov writes.

One can consider the first direct presidential election a sort of holiday of democracy in the Czech Republic, Martin Biben writes in Mlada fronta Dnes.

However, those complaining that the choice is very difficult are right. A self-complacent demagogue unable to explain the origin of the money for his campaign is the main favourite, Biben writes, targeting former prime minister Milos Zeman.

His biggest rival is the man who feels ashamed for having been in the KSC in order to achieve a good career for a decade, but this is too little for him to humbly withdraw from the contest, Biben writes.

With a large margin, they are followed by an eccentric artist who mainly collects votes from those who consider the election a hoax, a tired aging noble man and an intelligent leftist who exaggerated his flirt with the Communists, he adds, alluding to musician Vladimir Franz, who is tattooed from head to toe, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and Social Democrat candidate Jiri Dienstbier.

The rest are obviously without any chances, Biben writes.

The likelihood that the post of Czech president will not be held by a man Czechs could be proud of and who would be their model is almost 100 percent, he adds.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz