Czech press survey - January 15

"After the article in Sme I won´t give any interviews to Slovak media," Petracek quotes Zeman as telling a reporter of Slovak TA3 news television station.

According to a commentary issued in the Slovak daily Sme last week, Zeman is the worst of the nine candidates who ran in the first round of the direct presidential election because he is linked to suspicious business circles.

The Saturday incident brings back memories of prime minister Zeman making vulgar statements about journalists and shows his special talent in moving personnel emotions to an official level, Petracek writes.

Both presidential candidates, Karel Schwarzenberg and Milos Zeman, will have to prepare a good finish of their campaigns before the second round of the election as the first round showed that the last two days are of the highest importance, Martin Komarek writes in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD).

Each candidate will have to show something new, he says.

Zeman is known for his quips but his quips are not witty anymore. He repeats himself and his is becoming his own caricature, like outgoing President Vaclav Klaus, Komarek writes.

Zeman´s quips started to be boring, which is the worst that can happen to a candidate. Statistician Jan Fischer was boring and he failed in the first round, although he was considered a favourite, Komarek says.

Schwarzenberg aroused a wave of patriotism, but patriotism is something that cannot last more than a week among the ironic Czechs, Komarek writes.

The weekend local referendums that rejected construction projects have been the biggest success of the Czech civic society in the recent years, Jindrich Sidlo says in Hospodarske noviny.

Sidlo recalls that the referendums, held along with the first round of the presidential election, decided against the plans to build a new expensive town hall in Prague´s 7th district, a giant shopping centre in the centre of the Plzen city, west Bohemia, and a waterpark in Pisek, south Bohemia.

A new generation of activists has arrived, Sidlo writes.

It is hardly surprising that President Vaclav Klaus claimed that the media manipulated the first round of the direct presidential election because Klaus always tried to persuade the others that the modern information society is harmful and hostile, Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in Pravo.

But it seemed awkward to hear a similar statement from Prime Minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS), who reacted to the fact that the ODS´s candidate Premysl Sobotka was last but one among the nine presidential candidates, Mitrofanov says.

He recalls that the election team of Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) who advanced to the second round managed to use social networks in the election campaign.

Mitrofanov says Klaus and the ODS cannot understand that the social networks are not easily manipulated because people who are active on them can make their own minds and have their own opinions.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz