Czech press survey - January 30

The ultimatum of the TOP 09, which says TOP 09 will sign a new coalition agreement with the Civic Democrats (ODS) only if the Czech Republic joins the European fiscal compact this year, is connected not only with a stronger position of Schwarzenberg after the direct presidential election, but also with the fact that Klaus will be replaced by pro-European Zeman, Pehe writes.

Let´s hope that Zeman will resist the temptation to fight against the centre-right government in foreign policy where his position is markedly stronger than in domestic policy, Pehe says.

Czech coalition politicians seem to have taken seriously the words of president-elect Milos Zeman that the current government of Petr Necas (ODS) should fall as soon as possible, Alexandr Mitrofanov writes elsewhere in Pravo in relation to the brief clash between TOP 09 and the ODS.

TOP 09´s demand that the country join the fiscal compact in 2013 can be seen as the party´s preparation for a new general election, Mitrofanov says.

TOP 09 first deputy chairman Miroslav Kalousek said he will not sign the new coalition agreement unless the country joins the compact, but TOP 09 chairman Schwarzenberg then added that the coalition government might continue without the fiscal compact and even without signing a new coalition agreement, Mitrofanov writes.

TOP 09 took this step to make the impression that it is more pro-European and therefore more democratic than the ODS and more acceptable for those who voted for Schwarzenberg in the direct presidential election. Moreover, TOP 09 indicates that Klaus´s shadow is looming over the ODS, Mitrofanov says.

Kalousek said on Sunday that though Schwarzenberg was not elected president, he may be the next prime minister, but even Kalousek himself knows that this is rather unrealistic, Jindrich Sidlo writes in Hospodarske noviny (HN).

Schwarzenberg said last summer that he would leave top politics if he is not elected president, which seemed rather impossible then. At the age of 75 it is time to retire from politics, Sidlo writes.

In the presidential election Schwarzenberg managed to mask his link to the junior government TOP 09, but this was also because it was only him who ran for the post of president, Sidlo says.

In the general election, the unpopular Finance Minister Kalousek, TOP 09 mastermind, and former labour minister Jaromir Drabek, TOP 09 deputy head, will be running along with Schwarzenberg, as well as the Mayors and Independents (STAN) movement allied with TOP 09, which produced controversial culture ministers Jiri Besser and Alena Hanakova, Sidlo writes.

In the presidential election, Schwarzenberg was a symbol of change. However, this was possible only because his opponents were former socialist prime minister Milos Zeman and Vaclav Klaus, Sidlo concludes.

kva/t/rtj

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz