Press Review

It won't surprise you to hear that one item dominates all of Friday's papers... I'll whisper it - the Czech presidential elections - all the front pages feature photos of the three candidates Klaus, Moserova, and Zeman, though LIDOVE NOVINY was original enough to put a Josef Lada illustration on its cover reflecting the difficulty of electing a new president: a famous picture of a bar-room brawl: men fighting, dogs biting, the fire brigade coming through the window, while the band plays on. Surely it isn't as bad as all that, even if the caption does read: 'Klaus and Zeman will fight for every vote'.

One of the important issues for the new Czech president will be the possible US-led military conflict with Iraq - the Czech Republic has already pledged to support the US if an attack is sanctioned by the UN. But, in a short interview with Friday's PRAVO Jan Kavan, the chairman of the UN General Assembly, says that the majority of the 181 countries in the UN would favour a peaceful solution to the conflict. He adds that most believe that 'sufficient time' should be given for UN weapons inspectors to be able to complete their work. At the same time Mr Kavan admits few UN members have illusions about the true nature of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Turning to other topics now: what will become of outgoing First Lady Dagmar Havlova once President Vaclav Havel leaves office? MLADA FRONTA DNES writes that several organisations have succeeded in gaining Mrs Havlova's support, naming her to special posts - the latest is the Czech Medical Chamber which has named Mrs Havlova to its ethics committee. The head of the Medical Chamber David Rath asked Mrs Havlova to join, saying it was important there were people on the board from other spheres who 'knew something about medicine' - pointing to the fact that Mrs Havlova runs a foundation which donates money for the prevention of cancer.

The ethics committee is a consulting board to the chamber that deals with thorny issues such as euthanasia and human cloning. Forgive us the comment, but there are probably many political observers out there who would welcome a clone of Mrs Havlova's husband, who went from being dissident playwright to president. For weeks and months Czech analysts have been complaining there is no statesman to match Vaclav Havel's moral authority - saying his retirement will leave a huge vacuum on political scene...

Staying with MLADA FRONTA DNES the daily's weekend supplement features an interview with the US Ambassador to Prague Craig Stapleton, titled 'Bush has changed". In the interview Mr Stapleton comments the continuing impact of September 11th both on the world stage, and for him personally: it turns out the ambassador once ran an office at the World Trade Centre, an office where three hundred employees were killed.

In the article the reporter takes note of the fact that Mr Stapleton recently became a Republican despite a long-family tradition of siding with the Democrats. And how does he like being in Prague? MLADA FRONTA writes that the ambassador's favourite site in the city is the Rudolfinum concert hall where the symphony orchestra performs. Asked what he sees as the greatest prevailing problem in the Czech Republic Mr Stapleton replies 'Corruption. A problem symptomatic of all countries which underwent the transition from a socialist to a free market economy'.