Press Review
The Czech dailies are today dominated by political reports which focus on the new race for the Czech presidency between Vaclav Klaus and Milos Zeman, and the outcome of the Freedom Union's party congress over the weekend. But while these issues receive prominent coverage, there are also a number of other interesting stories in the Czech press today.
The Czech dailies are today dominated by political reports which focus on the new race for the Czech presidency between Vaclav Klaus and Milos Zeman, and the outcome of the Freedom Union's party congress over the weekend. But while these issues receive prominent coverage, there are also a number of other interesting stories in the Czech press today.
Czech politics received a new addition this weekend when a new party - the Labour Party - was formed in Prague on Saturday, reports LIDOVE NOVINY. The leader of the party is Jiri Stepanek, a former member of the far right Republican Party. According to deputy chairman Tomas Vanda, the main reason for the Labour Party's establishment is to defend workers' interests, and he sees it as a competitor to the Communist Party.
MLADA FRONTA DNES' front page reports that corruption in the Ministry of Foreign affairs has cost the state around 200 million crowns. Detectives from the anti-corruption squad have been inquiring into dubious public tenders for the reconstruction of embassies and residences. The detectives questioned former foreign minister and current president of the UN General Assembly Jan Kavan, who has denied playing any role in the contracts. MLADA FRONTA DNES adds that Mr Kavan has instead named former deputy foreign minister and the head of his office in New York, Helena Opolecka, as the official responsible.
Another Czech minister is also in trouble - but of a different sort. PRAVO writes that Defence Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik's trip to Kuwait was disrupted yesterday at Pristina airport, after the plane he was travelling in slid off the runway and one of its wheels got stuck. This is the second time that Mr Tvrdik has faced travelling difficulties in Kosovo: last December, when he tried to visit a Czech battalion stationed there, he was prevented from doing so by bad weather conditions.
So Kosovo may not be the safest place for Mr Tvrdik to travel in, but how safe would it be for him to be in south Bohemia? LIDOVE NOVINY writes that the south Bohemian regional office has commissioned a study on risk, which concludes that the biggest threat to human life in the region is posed by crossroads on busy roads, followed by ice-rinks and buildings with a big concentration of people, such as shopping centres. All of this in the region where the Temelin nuclear reactor is located - but, the study says, Temelin has so many safeguards that, even in the case of an accident, the chance that it would threaten human lives is small. But not if there was a terrorist attack, say environmentalists, who warn that terrorists have indicated that they could target nuclear reactors.
Then again, who can predict what will happen? Take a look at the Czech Meteorological Institute: HOSPODARSKE NOVINY reports that before last year's disastrous floods, it predicted that the amount of rain would be three times less than it turned out to be. Prognostic models are to blame, and the government has now agreed to modernise the prognostic operations of the institute by 2007 at a cost of hundreds of millions of crowns.
