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The visit of Czech Foreign Minister Jaroslav Sedivy to
Brussels, the Canadian and Danish parliaments' ratification of
Czech NATO membership, and the emerging funding scandal of the
Civic Democratic Alliance are the main headlines in the
newspapers today.
"There still exist trends in the Social Democratic Party of
which we are right to be afraid of," Adam Drda writes in
today's LIDOVE NOVINY. Most of its members, for instance,
share a socialist ideology which is dangerous in relation to
history and therefore it may largely affect the sectors of
education and culture. This ideology however can also affect
the economy, perhaps by resistance to foreign capital, and
naturally foreign policy, the author continues, and adds that
the Social Democrats are also notorious for their tolerance of
former communist prominents. "It would be too optimistic to
expect the Social Democracy to lead us out from the crisis.
But if at least Zeman's orientation towards the EU prevails in
the party, we do not have to be afraid of horrific reversals,"
Drda concludes.
Marcel Pok in today's ZEMSKE NOVINY comments on the Civic
Democratic Alliance's funding scandal. Businessman Kamil Kolek
has accused the party that it forced him to sponsor its
election campaign. In Pok's opinion, the affair could even
result in the fall of Tosovsky's government if the same
principle in the case of the ODS were applied. The Christian
Democrats and the ODA had left the former ruling coalition
because of their disagreement with the funding of their
partner - the ODS. If the Christian Democrats stick to the
same principles now and if the Civic Democratic Alliance's
funding proves controversial, it would be logical if Christian
Democrat ministers then handed in their resignation to Premier
Tosovsky, Marcel Pok writes in today's ZEMSKE NOVINY.
"Only an immensely naive person could think that financial
scandals will stop at the ODA and the ODS, or that financial
scandals related to parties or individual politicians will
ever end at all, Vlasta Hlusickova writes in today's SLOVO and
continues: Life has shown that not even the most carefully
worded law on financing political parties can prevent
financial scandals. The experience of countries which do not
have such problems shows that the best protection against
party financial machinations rests in morals, Vlasta
Hlusickova concludes in today's SLOVO.
In the same paper David Sebek comments on Social Democrat
deputy chairman Vladimir Spidla's statement that a possible
failure of a possible referendum on NATO would be no tragedy
for the country. The opposite is true, the author writes, and
continues that Finance Minister Ivan Pilip is right when he
says that this would delay Prague's membership by ten to 15
years. The Czech Republic would find itself on the periphery,
without security guarantees, Sebek writes. It is therefore
necessary to take a clear stand on NATO and to send a clear
and unequivocal signal to the alliance member states even if
this Chamber of Deputies fails to ratify the accession to the
Washington Treaty. "Waiting for the results of the early
elections would be an unnecessary waste of time," David Sebek
concludes in today's SLOVO.
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