Press Review

Angry reactions to French President Jacques Chirac's verbal attack on the EU candidates on Monday are splashed across all of today's front pages. "Chirac's words evoke outrage", "the Czech Republic rejects Chirac's verbal beating" and "why did Chirac attack Washington's allies?" those are some of the headlines in the Czech papers, along with snapshots of Mr. Chirac as Prime Minister in cordial conversation with Saddam Hussein dating back to the 70s when French-Iraqi ties flourished. Predicting this reaction, the Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda has told Lidove Noviny "President Chirac has not helped anything".

President Chirac, whose country prides itself on being the cradle of diplomacy, came across as a big boor, says Mlada Fronta Dnes. Mr. Chirac spoke for himself, but he damaged everyone and his imprudent action has completely overshadowed the agreement reached between the Union's current and future members. As we say "President Chirac shot himself in the foot" the paper notes, adding "he would be advised not to revert to Brezhnev tactics in the future because such actions are only likely to get Washington more supporters".

President Chirac's attack has destroyed quite a few myths about the EU, says Lidove Noviny. If Czechs were hoping to join an alliance where absolute democracy and equality reigns, they will have to think again. The European Commission has its own foreign policy and new members will be expected to toe the line. This may come as a disappointment to some, but at least they know that, unlike Moscow, Brussels does not follow up harsh words with tanks, the paper says.

The Civic Democratic Party on the other hand insists the Czech Republic must make it quite clear that this is not the kind of EU the country wants to join. In an editorial column for Mlada Fronta Dnes Jan Zahradil of the Civic Democrats points out that the Chirac incident is not about Iraq, but the future face of Europe. For too long Europe has been the face of Paris, Berlin and Brussels -and clearly some people have a problem relinquishing that concept, Zahradil notes.

Among the interesting domestic stories in Wednesday's papers is a front page report in Hospodarske Noviny. The Czech Republic has suddenly become a major gold exporter - surpassing Sweden, the leading European exporter, which mines four and a half tons of gold annually. But how did the Czech Republic come by the five tons of gold it is said to have exported last year? The explanation is that the gold was exported on paper only and its fictitious exporters received 360 million crowns in tax returns from the state, says Hospodarske Noviny.

Pravo reports that football hooligans are back in action. The police, whose presence at football matches has become essential, say they now confiscate not just knives, iron bars and bottles - but axes which some football fans bring to the match to be better equipped to demolish their surroundings later should their team lose the game.

Pravo says that many fans are seriously drunk even before they get to the football stadium. One incident which confirms this is Tuesday's raid on a petrol station by a group of fans who were "incited" to raiding the station by an ad which the owner had put up. It said " Be smart - choose a present". The football hooligans who were very drunk at the time took what they could carry, boarded their minibus and proceeded on to the game. The police caught up with them on the way, the paper reports.