Czech press survey - October 29

The address of course was not one that should bring people together, but this is something that Klaus gave up long ago, Sidlo says.

The world presented by Klaus is simple, he says.

On one side there are the camp of high taxes and lack of respect to the state and traditional values controlled by rather decadent supranational structures and lobbyist groups, Sidlo writes.

On the other side there is the Land of the Light: a strong national state of low taxes, pride, conservative virtues and positive energy that people only need to rediscover in themselves, Sidlo says.

But there seems to be nobody who would be able to lead to fight against the Dark World, Klaus whose presidential mandate expires next March indicates, Sidlo writes.

Klaus is offering his services once again, he concludes.

Martin Weiss says in Lidove noviny that Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg should have attended the Sunday night ceremonial event during which outstanding Czech personalities are decorated even though he dislikes President Vaclav Klaus.

The antagonism between Klaus and Schwarzenberg, former head of Vaclav Havel´s presidential office, is well known, Weiss writes.

Klaus did not want to appoint Prince Schwarzenberg foreign minister in 2006 arguing that Schwarzenberg is no Czech because he spent most of his life abroad, Weiss recalls.

He says Schwarzenberg always spoke of Klaus with disgust, typical of the political circles to which Schwarzenberg belongs.

Despite of this, Schwarzenberg should have taken part in the ceremony, especially when Prime Minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) was absent due to a calf injury, Weiss writes.

Necas suffered his injury at a time when everybody knows that he is not eager to meet the president, he says, hinting at the tense relations between Necas and Klaus who sides with the ODS rebels who threaten to topple Necas´s government.

The key motive of President Vaclav Klaus´s last night address is a defence of the status quo, although it may not seem so at first, Daniel Kaiser writes elsewhere in Lidove noviny.

Two-thirds of the address are calls to reduce the welfare state and criticism of various lobbyist groups. Klaus calls on the citizens not to give in to attacks on traditional values, Kaiser recalls.

He did not forget to warn people to be wise enough not to believe that supranational clerks and politicians only want to help us and not to run towards Brussels, Kaiser writes.

But all this is criticism of new phenomena that undermine the present state, he says.

Klaus likes the role of the concerned guard of the present social and constitutional order, Kaiser notes.

One may guess whether Klaus could play this role better from the post of a political party leader or even of a prime minister, or as the guru of the respective ideological stream that may even be pan-European, Kaiser says.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz