Press Review
The election of Miroslav Kalousek as the head of the junior coalition Christian Democratic Party makes the headlines in all today's papers. Photos of Mr. Kalousek wearing a broad grin share front page space with reports on the terrorist attack in Riyadh.
Lidove Noviny devote a whole page to the new head of the centrist Christian Democratic Party Miroslav Kalousek and analysis of possible changes in the party's behaviour as a member of the ruling coalition. He tells the paper that he feels a great responsibility and stresses that his party will adhere to the coalition agreement but won't tolerate violations of it by the other partners, alluding to a recent disunity among the MPs of the biggest party in the coalition, the Social Democrats.
The business daily Hospodarske Noviny writes that according to the law, all Czech public libraries should be offering internet access. However, out of more than 6,000 libraries, only about one in four has an internet connection. At the same time, these are mainly located in large cities where there is relatively good internet proliferation.
However, libraries in smaller towns and villages, where computer literacy has been increasingly lagging behind, usually lack an internet connection altogether. The cause is the same as that cited for almost all problems in the public sector - a lack of funds.
The paper writes that the term "special train" used by Czech Railways, was more than fit: people smoking everywhere, many of them travelling without a ticket, lying on the floor, on the seats as well as in the luggage compartments, shouting out of the windows, and above all, all of them already drunk when by the time they were half way to Prague. The way back was much calmer, the reporter continues: most of the fans were sleeping happily all the way to Ostrava.
And finally, Pravo reports on an auction on Saturday when a painting by the famous Czech painter Frantisek Kupka was sold for a record price of 3.7 million Czech crowns (or around 120 thousand USD), the highest price achieved at a Czech auction this year. The happy new owner of the painting "Rose Shrub in Bloom", according to Pravo, is an average-looking man in his 40s.
