Czech press survey - October 19

In the second round, the leftist opposition, which fared very well in the first round last weekend, may gain the [three-fifth] constitutional majority in the upper house of parliament. This may encourage leftist voters to help the left gain the constitutional majority also in the lower house in the general elections due in mid-2014, Leschtina writes.

If so, the leftist parties could start changing the constitution, including documents incorporated in it, such as the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, Leschtina writes.

It is therefore in the interest of the ODS and TOP 09 to persuade as many voters as possible to support them in the second round of the Senate polls on October 19-20.

Instead of doing so, TOP 09 has only released an advertisement thanking all "responsible, independent, courageous, capable, hard-working honest, clever, self-confident and young people" for having cast their ballots in the first round. By this, however, TOP 09 indicated that it views those who did not take part in the first round as irresponsible, not independent etc, Leschtina writes.

The ODS head, PM Petr Necas, has refused to bear responsibility for the election result, asserting that governing parties cannot but lose Senate elections. Necas´s critics in the ODS, too, have shown no understanding for dissatisfied voters, Leschtina writes.

Since last weekend´s regional elections, Social Democrat (CSSD) leader Bohuslav Sobotka has been uncompromisingly drawing a new dividing line across the Czech political scene, openly declaring the Communists (KSCM) as the CSSD´s partner and the remaining parties as the CSSD´s foes, Lenka Zlamalova writes in Lidove noviny.

If conservative TOP 09 deputy head Miroslav Kalousek this spring considered forming a government together with Sobotka´s CSSD one day, such a chance has faded out now that Sobotka has chosen the KSCM as a partner, Zlamalova writes.

The CSSD and the KSCM have a chance to gain the constitutional majority in the Senate in this weekend´s second round of the Senate polls, she says.

In ten of the 27 wards contested, the left is sure of victory as CSSD candidates will clash there with the KSCM´s in the second round. For many free-minded voters it will be a difficult choice. However, shunning it would mean helping the Communists, because their supporters, loyal and disgusted [by politics], will definitely take part in the polls, Zlamalova concludes.

Elsewhere in Lidove noviny, Petruska Sustrova writes that the Communists´ (KSCM) success in the recent regional polls and the first round of the Senate polls is unfortunate but has also some positive aspects.

It should warn the Social Democrats (CSSD) that something is going wrong. The CSSD should feels concerned at so many left-oriented voters preferring the KSCM to the CSSD and it should ask why they do so, Sustrova writes.

Voters probably consider untrustworthy the CSSD´s practice of only criticising the right-wing government and repeatedly demanding early elections without proposing any solutions to problems, Sustrova writes.

Maybe the CSSD´s voters would not switch to the KSCM if the CSSD, instead of blaming the government for everything, tried to present its own plan of combatting corruption and enhancing the "state´s social feeling," Sustrova says.

Moreover, left-oriented voters, annoyed by the incredible stream of corruption scandals, see the CSSD also involved in them, unlike the KSCM, Sustrova writes.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz