Press Review

The Czech newspapers today focus on the latest developments in the war in Iraq. The front pages of Hospodarske noviny, Lidove noviny and Mlada fronta Dnes are dominated by colour photos of an American soldier covering the head of a statue of Saddam Hussein with an American flag, as he prepares to pull down the statue it in front of a crowd of Iraqis. And it is with this image that the fall of Baghdad is marked in the media in the Czech Republic, and also worldwide.

The other big story today is the vote in the European Parliament on the entry of ten candidate countries into the European Union. Pravo reports that, while the European Parliament endorsed the Czech Republic's accession, the country received the least number of "yes" votes of all the candidates. This was largely due to the "no" votes from members of Germany's Christian Social Union and Christian Democratic Union and Austria's Freedom Party, who want Prague to abolish the Benes Decrees.

However, Juergen Schroeder, a German member of the European Parliament from the Christian Democratic Union, tells Hospodarske noviny that the protest votes against the Czech Republic should not be exaggerated, as a majority of German members voted in favour. But he also believes that the Czech government and parliament need to do more to express their regret for the transfer of the German population after the Second World War.

You may recall a story that we covered on Tuesday about an Iraqi woman, Salia J. Khalaf, and her two year old son, who were denied entry into the Czech Republic last week. The foreigners' police at Prague's Ruzyne airport claimed that Ms Khalaf could pose a threat to "national security." Well, Mlada fronta Dnes reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - which called the case a "disgrace" for the Czech Republic - has launched a campaign to help the Iraqi woman, and the People in Need foundation has offered to pay for her and her son to fly back to Prague.

The front page of Lidove noviny carries an article on the tensions between Czech President Vaclav Klaus and the American Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Craig Stapleton. The paper writes that relations between Prague Castle and the White House can currently be described as very cold, due to President Klaus' criticism of the American-led action against Iraq. Tensions between the president and the ambassador worsened when they last met on March 28, when the ambassador prematurely ended the meeting because of President Klaus' disagreement with the inclusion of the Czech Republic among the "Coalition of the Willing."

Meanwhile, President Klaus has also been looking for a new home, and Lidove noviny reports that it looks like it will be a villa in the Prague quarter of Dejvice. The villa is currently owned by the Ministry of Defence, which is looking into whether the house can satisfy security requirements for the president. Mr Klaus is still living in his three bedroom apartment in Prague 8, and he has so far rejected a villa in the gardens of Prague Castle and a five room apartment in the castle for his official residence.

And a feature article in Mlada fronta Dnes tells us that Czech eating habits haven't really changed, despite all the new influences on the Czech diet since the fall of communism. No new trends have been able to topple svickova and pork with sauerkraut and dumplings from their position as the Czechs' most favourite dishes. And - dare I state the obvious - but beer is still by far the country's best loved beverage.