JUNE 30, 1998

P R E S S  R E V I E W

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Commentaries in today's newspapers focus on the complicated political situation and the question of whether the communist party should still be kept in isolation.

While Milos Zeman's attempts to find coalition partners seem to be failing despite much compromising, the right wing parties have started quarrelling in the media about the conditions under which they would ally with each other. It looks as if the right-wing leaders do not realize that the elections have already taken place and that their results must be respected, Jan Hornik writes in LIDOVE NOVINY. A right-wing coalition with a narrow majority of two will require close cooperation and endless compromises, and not what the parties are parading now, the author points out. Of course it is necessary to enter political talks with high demands so that there is room to manoeuvre, Hornik continues, but publicizing these demand in advance is pointless and can only complicate reaching an agreement. In Hornik's opinion, this behaviour is rather a sign of political amateurism. "If right-wing politicians do not start behaving rationally, we could find ourselves in a situation where they all prefer to be in opposition rather than in the government," Hornik writes and concludes that should the leaders fail to come to terms with each other, the parties had better start thinking about replacing them.

Martin Hekrdla in today's PRAVO also comments on the difficult situation in which political parties are unable to agree on a government coalition. He asks what is the way out of a situation in which neither of the leaders of the two strongest parties will be able to form a government. He sees the key in the Freedom Union's idea that a new government should follow the policies of the current cabinet of Josef Tosovsky. There is something for everyone in Tosovsky's government policies, Hekrdla writes: a pragmatic solution to real problems for Lux, the recreation of right-wing policies and the completion of reforms for Ruml, and even Klaus had said he didn't know how to oppose it. That is why, Hekrdla opines, politicians will probably want to put together a government similar to Tosovsky's.

The idea of bringing the Communists out of their political ghetto seems to be gaining ground. This solution would much simplify the political scene, Martin Schmarz writes in MLADA FRONTA DNES. But he points out that an idealistic plan is one thing, and what the Communists are actually like is quite another. President Havel has good reasons for not inviting the Communists to talks on the new government, the author writes. No one wants to openly collaborate with a party which calls for a change of regime and still believes in the class struggle. To give such a party a share in democratic power means approving its hard line. The communists then would be able to say: "Look, we stood firm, we didn't betray our Marxist ideals and it's paid off - not even the bourgeois president can overlook us, and the government can't get anywhere without us."

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