Czech press survey - January 16

ODS supported Foreign Minister and TOP 09 Karel Schwarzenberg. This may both weaken the coalition government of Petr Necas (ODS) and improve the position of the conservative TOP 09, ODS´s rival.

The ODS and CSSD strategy and tactics in the direct presidential election are bad, Komarek writes.

He says the Social Democrats may fear that their party will split if Milos Zeman, former CSSD leader and prime minister who established his own party, is elected president.

CSSD first deputy chairman Michal Hasek had a meeting with Zeman immediately after the first round of the election. It is not clear what pact they made, but Hasek arranged that the party leadership officially backed Zeman, Komarek writes.

He says CSSD chairman Bohuslav Sobotka is clearly aware of it and he cannot be happy about the situation.

The situation of the ODS is even worse. Its candidate Premysl Sobotka completely failed in the first round and the ODS may continue losing voter support and it may even lose all of its parliamentary seats, Komarek writes, referring to the general election due in 2014.

Milos Zeman and Karel Schwarzenberg have more in common that their voters are willing to admit, Petr Zidek writes in Lidove noviny.

Aside from the fact that both are heavy smokers, which is a rather exceptional feature among current politicians pointing to lack of discipline, both Zeman and Schwarzenberg are in fact loners for whom political parties are nothing but a means for their personal ambition, Zidek says.

He recalls that Schwarzenberg was connected with the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA), the Freedom Union (US-DEU) and then the Green Party (SZ) and now he is TOP 09 chairman. Zeman joined the Civic Movement (OH), but he did not make a political career there and he joined the Social Democrats whom he left and formed his own Party of Citizens´ Rights (SPOZ), Zidek adds.

The best that might happen to the Social Democrats now is the presidency of Karel Schwarzenberg, Jiri Hanak writes in Pravo.

He says Zeman, former CSSD long-standing leader, would paralyse the Social Democrats.

Outgoing President Vaclav Klaus, former ODS long-standing leader, has been making life difficult for the Civic Democrats for some time. The ODS´s situation should be a warning for the CSSD, Hanak writes.

Hanak says Zeman did a lot for the CSSD in the 1990s but he has been harming it since 2002.

Author: ČTK
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