Czech press survey - March 4

He writes that Klaus´s steps have always been radical, which is rather unimaginable in case of a president whom people expect to be uniting the nation.

When it was him who was determining the debate, he was acting as an open liberal politician who is ready to take part in an ideological clash, Bures writes.

But when criticism was levelled against him, he retreated behind the barriers protecting the greatness of the presidential post to which obligatory respect is due, he writes.

The proposal to charge Klaus with high treason may be a purely political step that is tantamount to a revenge taken on him for his behaviour in the past years, Bures writes.

If senators really wanted to do something useful to "clarify" the powers of the president, they should start drafting an amendment to the constitution that would simply deprive the president of the right to halt criminal prosecution, Jindrich Sidlo writes in Hospodarske noviny on the same theme.

This could last no more but ten minutes, he adds.

But this will not happen because the hysteria and hypocrisy sell much more easily than principles, Sidlo writes.

The halting of criminal prosecution, including in some closely-watched cases of corruption and financial fraud, is part of the amnesty Klaus declared in January and that has aroused a big outcry in society.

Elsewhere in Hospodarske noviny, Jiri Leschtina writes taht former labour and social affairs minister Jaromir Drabekk has a strong stomach, which he proved when he said the manipulated public order for a new computer system for the payment of welfare benefits when he was minister was correct because it was realistic.

Leschtina writes that Drabek will definitely claim that he had nothing in common with the octopus participating in the order in which the police have started prosecuting 12 people from the ministry and private firms, which looks like a pretty strong mafia.

Drabek himself challenged his own claim that he knew nothing about this when he persuaded the government to approve placing the order without a tender, Leschtina writes.

He "explained" to the government that a sole firm can supply the system, which is precisely what the anti-trust office described as entirely untrustworthy, Leschtina writes.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz