Czech press survey - October 29

A party leader should be a widely known personality, should have experience with high politics and should be connected with an important issue. Blazek, now an ODS deputy head, meets none of these criteria, Honzejk writes.

There is no one in the party who could replace Necas. The long "stay" in power has completely destroyed the ODS. In regions and towns, the then promising ODS politicians previously formed oligarchic structures along with local businesses and later with dubious local allies from the otherwise arch-rival Social Democratic Party (CSSD), Honzejk writes.

Their [corrupt] political style finally prevailed on the national level of politics exactly in the moment [early 2010] when the ODS elected Necas as chairman in hope that he may clean the party from above, Honzejk writes.

Blazek is a perfect symbol of the above process. In 2010, Necas chose him for deputy chairman of the then "new ODS," but Blazek, keeping to the old [infamous] practice, initiated the formation of an ODS-CSSD coalition at the Brno city hall. Necas ousted him as an ally, but earlier this year he appointed him justice minister, which proves that the ODS´s organism is stronger than Necas.

Petr Necas´s cabinet does not have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies but still it can survive Wednesday´s vote of confidence it has linked to the Chamber´s vote on a controversial but crucial tax package, Petr Kambersky writes in Lidove noviny.

To survive a confidence vote, the government needs support from a majority of the deputies present. The left opposition plus six irreconcilable rebels in Necas´s Civic Democratic Party (ODS) together have 88 votes in the 200-seat Chamber.

The independent deputies and the centrist opposition Public Affairs (VV) deputies will not be interested in the government´s fall as it could lead to early elections and consequently to their own end as MPs. Many of them may therefore decide not to attend the vote on Wednesday and thus help the cabinet survive, Kambersky writes.

Maybe even some opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) will shun the vote, as for the CSSD, early elections would be unadvantageous either. First, it needs to increase its lead over the Communists (KSCM). Second, its popularity can be expected to grow the more the longer Necas´s cabinet continues ruling in the hard period of recession, Kambersky writes.

In Mlada fronta Dnes, political analyst Bohumil Dolezal assesses President Vaclav Klaus´s address at the award-giving ceremony on October 28, Czechoslovakia´s birth anniversary.

Klaus rightfully protested against negativist descriptions of the present situation in the Czech Republic and emphasised the need of sober and matter-of-fact approach. He rightfully criticised the life on debt - criticism that, according to Dolezal, should be applied not only to the Czech government but also people and to people in all western countries.

As usual, Klaus also aggressively lashed out at closely unspecified tendencies (Klaus probably meant certain forces in the EU) of using the current troubles in Europe to seek a radical centralisation of the continent and further weakening the sovereignty of historical European states, Dolezal recalls.

However, the EU is a human formation, naturally with a number of flaws, but it is a project bringing together the western world, from which the Czechs dropped out for half a century and now they have returned to it through the EU. It is necessary to care for the EU´s preservation and reinforcement, though it is useful to criticise it now and then, Dolezal writes.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz