Press Review | All stories

All the Czech newspapers feature on their front pages Carinthian governor Joerg Haider, who announced his retirement from politics on Monday, although he changed his mind on Tuesday, making the front pages rather redundant. Many Czech newspapers carry reactions to the Austrian election results, and say an Austria without Haider would be unlikely to put obstacles in the Czech Republic's path to the European Union.

The papers are dominated today by the weekend's groundbreaking elections in neighbouring Austria, which saw the conservative People's Party clinching victory for the first time in 35 years. Meanwhile Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party scored one of its worst ever results, losing almost two-thirds of its voters. "Haider Loses Election" says MLADA FRONTA DNES, summing things up nicely.

"History has been written in Prague" reads the headline in Friday's LIDOVE NOVINY summing up the situation after Day One of the NATO Summit being held in the Czech Republic: on Thursday NATO officials invited seven new countries to join the alliance and all of the dailies carry extensive coverage of the event. All show cover photographs of beaming world leaders including Jacques Chirac, Vaclav Havel, and George W. Bush. Only PRAVO features a photo of demonstrators on its cover instead.

There are few surprises in the Czech newspapers today - like yesterday, most of their pages are taken up with coverage of the NATO Summit. The newspapers focus on the statements made by US President George Bush in Prague yesterday, last night's gala ceremony at Prague Castle at which heads of state honoured Vaclav Havel, and the anti-NATO protests that are expected to take place today.

The Czech Republic is in the grip of NATO-mania and the papers report on the upcoming NATO summit from every conceivable angle: who will be invited to join the alliance in Prague, what transformation NATO needs to undergo to meet the new challenges ahead and most of all security matters. NATO related stories fill the Czech dailies from cover to cover.

NATO madness continues today - all the papers herald the imminent arrival of the leader of the free world in the Czech capital - "Bush on his way to Prague" trumpets MLADA FRONTA DNES, and that sentiment is echoed on all the other front pages as well. Even the left-wing PRAVO features a front-page interview with the U.S. president - the headline reads "I'm really looking forward to Prague." Profound stuff.

The upcoming NATO summit in Prague is the lead topic in all the Czech papers which are already competing for the best scoop on what they call "the lead political event of the year". The papers all promise exclusive interviews with VIPs and special reports every day of the week.

The diplomatic spat between Prague and Minsk rages on today - "Belarus threatens to expel Czech diplomats" is the headline in MLADA FRONTA DNES.

It's impossible to glance at any of today's papers without appreciating the triumph of Jiri Novak shouting in joy after downing tennis star Andre Agassi at the Masters tournament in Shanghai on Wednesday. Novak's photo is featured across the board, even dwarfing the tiny image of Belarussian strongman Alexander Lukashenko on the cover of PRAVO the president of Belarus is threatening to flood western Europe with illegal migrants and drug dealers unless he is given an entry visa to the Czech Republic for next week's NATO summit.

Most of the Czech newspapers on Wednesday carry a picture of Pavel Bem from the Civic Democratic party who is going to become Prague's new mayor. He is shown shaking hands with his colleague from the left-of-centre Social Democratic Party, Jiri Paroubek as the Czech capital will be ruled by a right-left coalition for the next four years.