Czech press survey - November 3

The Czech cabinet says the opt-out does not change Czech citizens' rights but only enhances their legal security in connection with President Vaclav Klaus's fears of possible property claims by post-war German deportees, Michal Mocek writes in the paper.

The argument that the opt-out ensures legal security for Czechs is absurd. If true, it would mean that countries with a far stronger legal tradition, such as France, the Netherlands or Sweden, have not ensured such security for their citizens sufficiently, Mocek says.

The Benes decrees, whose violation Klaus feared and pushed for the opt-out to prevent it, also apply to Slovakia [where mainly property of ethnic Hungarians was confiscated after the war], which has no opt-out. Does this mean that the Slovaks have allowed themselves to be deprived of a legal safeguard? Mocek asks.

It can be hardly decided now who is right in this dispute. It is probably the practice that will decide, as different rules will apply to Czechs and Slovaks, respectively, Mocek writes.

The Czechs will have to live exempted from the Charter for some time, until 2013 when Klaus's presidential tenure expires. By then it will become clear whether the Slovaks have fallen victims to the Charter or whether it will be the Czechs who have paid for the opt-out wrung-out by Klaus, Mocek writes.

If the opt-out does not prove necessary in the "trial period," the Czechs should apply for its abolition, mainly if it turned out that the arguments of Slovakia are partly true, he adds.

It looks like a miracle that Prime Minister Jan Fischer, who has pushed through the toughest financial cuts in the Czech Republic in the past decade, is loved by four in five Czechs, Petr Honzejk writes in Hospodarske noviny, referring to a recent public opinion poll.

Maybe the Czechs have realised that austerity is necessary. This hypothesis, however, is very improbable in the country that generated debts even at the time of peaking prosperity, Honzejk writes.

Or people love Fischer as a governor of a modest origin, who, in addition, was a member of the communist party before 1989 and thus does not provoke the majority "grey zone" of population [by being a former dissident], Honzejk writes.

Hypothesis 3 rests in Fischer's appearance as an ordinary man, neither charming nor handsome nor young, which enables people to identify themselves with him and also with his decisions, Honzejk continues.

Fourth, in Fischer's case people need not feel that "they have the government they deserve," as his caretaker cabinet of unaffiliated experts did not arise from elections but was appointed this spring. If Fischer succeeds, the better, as he would overshadow the [unpopular] politicians.

According to hypothesis 5, Fischer is a courageous official. He is reminiscent of early medieval administrators who seized the territory entrusted to them and yielded to no one but a lord with an army exceeding theirs, Honzejk writes.

Hypothesis 6 is that Fischer's government rules calmly. He does not bother people with politics, does not call press conferences three times a day, avoids scandals, works hard and looks convincingly, Honzejk writes.

The daily Lidove noviny recalls that the main Czech political parties agree on the necessity to build another two units of the nuclear power plant Temelin, south Bohemia, and asks whether the project should be entrusted to a U.S., French or Russian company.

The previous cabinet of Mirek Topolanek wanted to reduce the country's dependence on Russia and to diversify the sources of energy. This argument is still valid. Now that Vladimir Putin says Ukraine poses the risk of a new gas crisis, the Czech experience and national interest urgently advise Prague to shun Russia and its Atomstroyexport company and to seek a partner among its allies in the EU and America, commentator Zbynek Petracek writes.

"If Czechs were to pay regard to its hypersensitive neighbours, the best choice would be the French company Areva, as it would allegedly reliably reduce Austria's anti-nuke fever. But...," Petracek continues.

Nuclear energy is specific, with a far lower blackmail potential than gas. If Russia stopped its gas supplies, the Czechs would run out of gas in a few weeks. However, they can acquire nuclear fuel, including Russian, for many years ahead, Petracek says.

Almost no one trained nuclear experts in the past years of nuclear recession. Where such experts can be acquired now that the French ones are working on projects in Finland and will start working in Sweden soon? Petracek asks.

It can be said with exaggeration that no matter if the Czech Temelin order is gained by U.S. Westinghouse, by Areva or Atomstroyexport, each of them would try hard to hire the same Chinese experts, Petracek writes.

If the Russian order were the best, it is unnecessary to decline it at any costs - atom is not gas, he concludes.

Autor: ČTK
www.ctk.cz