Czech press survey - October 4

He reacts to the announced resignation of Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jaromir Drabek (TOP 09) over a corruption scandal of his first deputy Vladimir Siska.

Under Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS), ministers always resign shortly after their respective scandals break out. Necas never shows off on such occasions and he never continues persecuting politicians after their departure as ministers, Komarek writes.

The compromised politicians depart in a way enabling them to save their face. True, this practice seems to be too soft in the eyes of the crowd that demands "corrupt officials´ blood," Komarek writes.

Compared with the practice pursued under the previous cabinets, the present approach is "a small step for Necas but a giant leap for the country" that badly lacks unwritten rules to "correct" politicians´ excessive clinging to power, Komarek writes.

Such rules, if set, would be even more important than laws, because people tend to view accepted moral limits as more binding than those forced on them from outwards, Komarek says.

Outgoing Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jaromir Drabek was a technocrat who considered his ministerial post a managerial task. He never showed any interest in or understanding for how the people in focus of his ministry really live, Martin Weiss writes in Lidove noviny.

It is typical of Drabek´s approach that the pension system reform has been prepared but no one knows what it is about. It is managers who should have prepared the reform, but its promotion is up to the relevant minister, a politician, Weiss writes.

Drabek was no politician, which is also why the draft pension reform is so easy to torpedo, Weiss continues.

Drabek´s departure should also draw attention to the Czech Chamber of Commerce (CHK) in which Drabek and his prosecuted former deputy minister Vladimir Siska used to work. In view of the recent troubles of the CHK and of its present head, Petr Kuzel, the suspicion arises that the CHK´s effect on the Czech economy is negative, Weiss says.

The question is whether the Czech electorate will be more impressed by Labour Minister Jaromir Drabek´s (TOP 09) resignation over his deputy´s scandal or by everything that preceded it, Jiri Leschtina writes in Hospodarske noviny.

He refers to Drabek´s awkward lashout at the police for their not having informed him about their plan to arrest his deputy Vladimir Siska, and to his demand that the police produce an unchallengeable proof of Siska´s guilt.

As if Drabek were empowered to demand more from the police than any other citizen, Leschtina writes.

In the past days, it was also a gloomy show when the TOP 09 leadership backed Drabek´s awkward clinging to his post. A few hours later, Drabek resigned and TOP 09 leaders, including the party´s presidential candidate (Karel Schwarzenberg, foreign minister and TOP 09 head), look like clowns now, Leschtina writes.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz