Czech press survey - March 1

The CSSD´s alliance with some of the currently ruling right-wing parties is out of the question, he says.

The support of [centre-left] Citizens´ Rights Party (SPOZ, linked to president-elect Milos Zeman] probably would not be so strong to secure a comfortable position of the CSSD-led cabinet, Mitrofanov says, adding that the SPOZ may not enter the Chamber of Deputies at all.

The centrist Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) are a hopeful partner, but they are not sure of entering the Chamber of Deputies either, Mitrofanov says.

From the mathematical point of view, the CSSD´s most comfortable future ally is the Communist Party (KSCM), whose programme is also close to the CSSD´s, Mitrofanov writes.

However, CSSD first deputy chairman Michal Hasek has been resolutely and for a long time opposed to a CSSD-KSCM cooperation on the government level. Until Hasek remains the CSSD´s number two man, his protest voice will keep weight in the party.

The CSSD congress will probably re-elect Hasek first deputy chairman later this month, as a result of which the above dilemma will persist, Mitrofanov says.

The senior ruling Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which after the mid-2010 polls vowed to implement reforms that would not be mere budget cuts, has now reached a point where the best it can offer to people, in its opinion, is doing nothing any more, Martin Weiss writes in Lidove noviny.

The ODS is incapable of agreeing on anything else and it lacks personalities to come up with new ideas and plans.

On Thursday, the ODS executive council abolished the party´s branches in Prague 4, Prague 12 and Prague-West over flourishing "whaling," Weiss recalls.

"Whaling" is an infamous practice of the branch bosses, tied with businessmen, using suspicious methods to recruit numbers of new members whose votes eventually help them gain control of the branch and its decision making.

In the ODS, the "whalers" are starting to prevail over decent and competent people. It would take long to change this and help decency prevail again, Weiss writes.

PM and ODS chairman Petr Necas´s offensive has started and it does not look hopeless, Petr Honzejk writes in Hospodarske noviny about the abolition of the three ODS branches in Prague over their infamous "whaling" practices.

By having these branches abolished by the ODS executive council, Necas achieved three effects. He proved that he means seriously his plan to improve the ODS´s image, that he is not afraid and not alone in the party to pursue the plan, Honzejk writes.

Necas has chosen a target that symbolises everything what voters resent about the ODS - Ondrej Palounek, a former convict who did not hesitate to have himself elected Prague 4 ODS chairman with the help of "imported" Thai boxers. From Thursday, Palounek´s branch does not exist any more, Honzejk writes.

Next weeks will show how strong Necas´s opponents in the party are and whether he has decided to wage more battles than what he is able to cope with, Honzejk concludes.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz