Czech press survey - September 12

On Thursday, the US complied with deputy Milos Melcak's complaint and abolished the early elections that President Vaclav Klaus had called for October 9-10.

Lawyer Jan Kalvoda who worked out the complaint said he would complaint against new law passed by the parliament as a way towards early elections, Weiss recalls.

Melcak whom Kalvoda represents confirmed it on Friday.

The main argument used by Kalvoda against the law is that they are applied retroactively, Weiss notes.

In such a situation the only certain way to get to early elections is that a prime minister would three times ask the lower house for support in a confidence vote and fail in all the three cases, Weiss writes.

If embittered ex-politician Kalvoda and unaffiliated deputies, including also Juraj Raninec, decide to prevent the early elections through the Constitutional Court, this might lead to a grand coalition of the right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS) and the Social Democrats (CSSD), Weiss says.

If current President Vaclav Klaus was still ODS leader and Milos Zeman still headed the CSSD, a grand coalition would definitely form in reaction to this development, Weiss writes.

The constitutional amendment that the parliament quickly passed on Friday definitely is retroactive, in other words it changes the rules during the game but the MPs try to get rid of a problem that complicated the rule of the country, Martin Komarek writes in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD).

If there is a leak in the water piping, people look for the best possible immediate solution to stop the leak, Komarek writes.

When the parliament adds a new way leading towards early elections, they do not violate anything, he says.

Common sense says the latest constitutional amendment has more advantages than disadvantages. A simpler way of dissolving the lower house of parliament and new elections are definitely a curative instrument,

Let us hope that the lower house will be dissolved as soon as possible, Komarek writes.

The Civic Democrats claim that the current constitutional crisis would not occur if the CSSD and the Communists (KSCM) did not topple the ODS-led government in the spring, which is a rather stupid argument, Jiri Hanak writes in Pravo.

One might say that the constitutional crisis would not occur if the communist regime did not fall in 1989, Hanak says with irony.

But the crisis would certainly not occur if the ODS and the Greens (SZ) fulfilled the promise they made in autumn 2006, saying that their main goal is to solve the then post-election stalemate by early elections held as soon as possible, Hanak points out.

Yet they did not meet the promise when then ODS minority cabinet fell, he says.

On the contrary, ODS leader Mirek Topolanek (ODS) formed a new coalition government, including the Greens and the Christian Democrats (CSSD), which, however, did not hold a majority in the lower house and this government that won the confidence vote thanks to two CSSD deputies, including Melcak, who crossed the floor, Hanak writes.

Autor: ČTK
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