Press Review
President Klaus' growing popularity, unemployment reaching an all time high and continuing controversy over the government's fiscal reform - those are the main stories on today' s front pages. The papers also report on clean up operations on Czech roads in the wake of a damaging windstorm and the heightened number of accidents caused by bad weather.
When President Klaus took office he voiced the ambition to become the people's president and it seems that he has pulled it off, says Mlada Fronta Dnes. Twelve months later he has doubled his popularity rating. Political analysts polled by the daily suggest that President Klaus has attended a lot of social functions and avoided a lot of hot issues to get where he is today and they speculate as to how far he will be willing to take what they call his new populist policy.
However President Klaus himself sees things in a different light, telling the daily that he is certainly not courting the public. I am very consistent in my views, even if they happen to go against public opinion - my criticism of EU structures is a case in point, Mr. Klaus told the paper. I can't say I am not pleased to see the public appreciate this, he added.
Meanwhile, the ruling coalition is fighting over what family budgets can take. When the Cabinet agreed on a series of tax hikes which will increase the price of water -the Social Democrats backtracked on an earlier agreement - a phased out increase of regulated rents: ten percent a year for three years in succession -arguing that family budgets could not take such a burden. However the Social Democrats two coalition partners are not willing to accept this, says Lidove Noviny.
The issue has created a storm within the governing coalition. The Freedom Union has said there is no further manoeuvring space for concessions - demanding that the Social Democrats respect the hard won compromise agreed on earlier. However the Social Democrat Prime Minister is under fire from members of his party for allegedly failing to hold the party's policy course and delivering on election promises, so his manoeuvring space is very tight as well, the paper notes.
And finally people in the arts world are also voicing opposition to the recently announced tax hikes which would send up the price of theatre and cinema tickets. Stage actors in small cinemas outside of Prague are particularly concerned about the future predicting many closures if the announced hikes go into effect.
Some theatres are already scraping the bottom of the barrel for funds, says Pravo, and this additional burden would break their backs. The hikes will bring some 140 million crowns into state coffers - is that good enough reason to bring a third of Czech theatres into bankruptcy - the owner of a popular Prague theatre house asks.
