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There's just no escaping that man Vaclav Klaus - the head of the Civic Democrats dominates the Czech press once again on Friday. Mlada fronta Dnes reports that all the speculation is over - Mr Klaus will not be running for president next year. Given his party's poor showing in the elections last weekend, it's hard to imagine that being news to anybody at all.

Without a doubt the dominant story in today's papers is the possible resignation of Vaclav Klaus as head of the Czech Republic's largest right-of-centre party, the Civic Democrats, or the ODS, after the party came in second in elections to the lower house last weekend. In an interview for BBC radio on Wednesday Mr Klaus said he would offer his resignation at the next ODS convention, in line with a promise last year to accept personal responsibility if the party did badly in the elections. In the interview, however, Mr Klaus went on to add that even if he did resign he would consider running for re-election as party head again...so it seems at this moment that it is too difficult to guess just what Mr Klaus will do.

Possibly the most important message on all of today's front pages is that -twelve years after the fall of communism - the Communist party is breaking out of its enforced political isolation. " The communists to get their share of power" says Lidove noviny. In a front page editorial Jiri Loewy notes that President Havel's refusal to acknowledge or meet with the communists is a lone, symbolic gesture of defiance that cannot prevent the onset of a new era. The communists are back and the door to power is wide open. They have only to walk through it, Loewy says.

On the third day after the general elections, all newspapers continue to analyse the results and examine all the possible scenarios.

The winners and the losers of the 2002 parliamentary elections look out from all of today's front pages as commentators usher in what they call "Spidla's era". He was an inconspicuous man in an ill fitting suit - but he's clearly a fighter and a politician to be reckoned with, says Mlada fronta Dnes of the man who looks set to become the country's next prime minister.

The major success of the Social Democratic Party, big gains for the Communists and the losses of the right-of-centre Coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union Party - these are the main topics discussed by special Sunday editions of the Czech newspapers today.

The general election which ended at 2 p.m. on Saturday, and what journalists are calling a "palace coup" at the commercial station TV Nova are the two topics that prevail in all the Czech newspapers today. All of them also feature colour photos of the leaders of the four major parties and President Vaclav Havel casting their ballots at polling stations throughout the country.

The polling stations open today and all major Czech newspapers reflect that fact on their front pages. For example, the editorial in Lidove noviny, written by the editor-in-chief himself, lists five reasons why people should vote.

Today's front pages inevitably reflect the election fever in the Czech Republic. With just hours left before polling stations open, political parties are bending over backward to try to impress voters. The end of the election campaign is one big party, says Mlada fronta Dnes featuring snapshots of various outdoor rallies: the Coalition with a tame lion dressed up in a coalition T-shirt nuzzling senator Jan Ruml, the leading Social Democrat candidate Petra Buzkova hosting a mega party in Prague and the Civic Democratic Alliance in sports gear, riding their bikes through the city centre.

Without exception the one item splashed across all of today's Czech dailies is the shocking first-round elimination of France from football's World Cup - Lidove noviny and Mlada fronta Dnes both feature photos of teary-eyed French supporters, faces streaked in their national colours. Meanwhile, Hospodarske noviny features a photo of a bowed Zinadine Zidane, the star mid-fielder who failed to make a mark; France makes their exit, the end of a golden era.