Czech press survey - March 9

Milos Zeman is a much bigger chatterbox than his predecessor, Vaclav Klaus, and drawing any conclusions from the sole speech he has made would be a loss of time, Martin Zverina writes in daily Lidove noviny today.

Godfathers´ mafias and neo-Nazis, two of the three groups he said he wants to fight, are looked after by the police and state attorneys who have only started to take more radical steps against them under the government coalition, Zverina writes.

That is why they need to be afraid of the police and state attorneys rather than of Zeman, Zverina writes.

He writes, however, that a part of those falling under Zeman´s third target, journalists, namely those in public media, could start being afraid.

Zeman will want to tame them in an enthusiatic cooperation with the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) and Communists (KSCM), perhaps in tge name of balance, Zverina writes.

He writes that "we in private media are out of the woods. Colleague Zbynek Petracek has said: There has never been a greater interest in (the weekly) Respekt than when Zeman wanted to put an end to it (in the past)," Zverina writes.

The answer to the discussion about whether the state funeral of Vaclav Havel, "a great man and the first president of the free Czech Republic," may have been hysterical, is a definite "no," but Milos Zeman´s inauguration was hysterical, Martin Komarek writes in Mlada fronta Dnes.

The inauguration of the non-hero real-politics representative Zeman was pompous, exaggerated and ridiculous. The monarchist show that took place at Prague Castle belonged in the deep past, Komarek writes.

Zeman has missed the first opportunity to come down in at least small history. Being a sceptic and a personally modest man, he could have refused all the medieval pageantry.

He could have conceived his assumption of the office that is largely formal just as civilly as the appointment of the country´s prime minister, who is in fact the most powerful person in the country, Komarek writes.

He says it was only pleasing that Zeman arrived at Prague Castle in a car of Volkswagen concern made by the Czech Skoda firm. It is only to be seen how quickly he will replace it with an Audi just as his predecessor, Vaclav Klaus, did, Komarek writes.

Jiri Hanak writes in Pravo that Zeman´s speech did not disappoint him either in the bad or in the good.

Zeman´s thanks to the voters of his election rival, Karel Schwarzenberg, was elegant and of a great weight in the dirt of confrontational Czech politics, Hanak writes.

When Zeman was speaking about the need to fight Godfathers through a law on property statements, their political clients were sitting calm in their seats, Hanak writes.

But when he spoke about journalists as the third of three biggest evils, after the Godfathers and neo-Nazis, the politicians kept applauding him, Hanak writes.

He writes that this did not surprise him because were it not for journalists, the Godfathers´ life would be easy.

Hanak writes, however, that Zeman surprised him in this connection because the percentage of the stupid, medium-able and more able journalists is the same as among politicians, but there is no genius in either group. Besides, Zeman may need the more able, Hanak writes.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz