Czech press survey - September 17

At present, there is the powerless and disintegrated ODS, unable to resist President Vaclav Klaus, on the one hand, and a powerless and disintegrated CSSD on the other, Dolezal writes.

Unlike the era of Klaus and former Social Democrat leader Milos Zeman, they are unable to agree on anything, he adds.

Besides, both Klaus and Zeman have their own fifth columns in the two parties, Dolezal writes.

The forthcoming struggle over the government and the presidential post (in which Klaus is supporting Zeman) will be of momentous importance, he adds.

Do the CSSD and the ODS realise that now everything is at stake for them? he adds.

All the demands raised by the six rebels in the ODS are either in contradiction with the budget goals, under which the deficit is to fall under 3 percent of GDP next year, or are politically unfeasible within the coalition government, Pavel Paral writes in Mlada fronta Dnes.

It will be extremely difficult to find any compromise in which both faces may keep their faces and the government will not fall, Paral writes.

Perhaps the only way is to make the current form of the government-sponsored austerity package only temporary and to prepare at the same time a timetable of the changes that would satisfy the rebels, he adds.

However, all of this only makes sense if there is only infighting in the ODS before its national congress, not an effort at toppling the government motivated by a number of more or less unlikely reasons, Paral writes.

It is something perverted if a liberally-minded person supports a ban, but in this case, this must be done, Martin Komarek writes in Mlada fronta Dnes, commenting on the government decision to impose ban on the sale of liquor following a series of fatal accidents due to the drinking of methanol.

The partial prohibition ordered by Health Minister Leos Heger is a sensible and human measure, Komarek writes.

Let the 20 million bottles that were laid to rest stay so for a couple of more days, he adds.

The state can only be criticised for having been unable to intervene against the bootleg criminals sooner, Komarek writes.

However, police everywhere in the world are unable to catch criminals beforehand, he adds.

At present, both Heger and police president Martin Cervicek seem to be doing their best, Komarek writes.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz