Prague Mayor Bem justifies his decision by his alleged intention not to harm the "fragile government coalition," but actually Topolanek's strongest internal rival must realise easily that he could not win in a direct battle with Topolanek now, Kolar says. Bem does not enjoy such broad support in the party as some media have reported.
Apart from Prague Castle [the Presidential Office] and the Prague ODS branch, he may find support only in part of central Bohemia, Kolar adds. This is also why it is easier for Bem to withdraw from the duel which is probably lost beforehand with honour, Soviet dissident writer Solzhenitsyn dies at 89 ...
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Projects ... citing the interest of the party and government as the reason. In spite of it, Bem "has left a back door open," claiming that the ODS's possible failure in the autumn Senate and regional elections or a collapse of the government if it did not manage to push through its reforms might change his opinion, Kolar notes. However, this idea is nothing surprising since in such cases Topolanek would have to resign from the party helm. Then Bem would enter the scene, but now he has no other choice, Kolar concludes in LN. Czech citizens have the right to ask who pays for politicians' travels and other activities over the risk of conflict of interest, Pavel Verner writes in Pravo today. He points out that Interior Minister Ivan Langer (Civic Democrats, ODS) told Pravo that he would cover his journey to the Beijing Olympics from his own pockets only after being asked three times. Politicians are travelling somewhere all the time and sometimes it is not certain who covers the costs - whether they alone, the state or sponsors pay for it, Verner adds. He recalls that Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek (ODS) was criticised last year over his "skiing-trip" to Innsbruck, Austria, where the government's airbus had a stop-over on his return from the official visit to Bulgaria. Prague Mayor Pavel Bem (ODS) admitted that sponsors had helped him finance his trip to Mount Everest in 2007. The public should ask him these questions since "a mayor is no private person." In his post he can significantly influence, for instance, the placing of public orders so he is in a constant threat of conflict of interest, Verner writes. Politicians' finances should be completely transparent, however, this is not the case of the Czech political scene, Verner writes in conclusion. Drastic labour camps for political prisoners existed in the former communist Czechoslovakia as well, but the country unfortunately has no writer comparable with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Petr Dudek writes in the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) in reaction to Solzhenitsyn's death. It is also true that no other nation, but the Russians, has the historical right to Solzhenitsyn. No other nation has "enriched" the 20th century by the hell that the prisoners of the "Gulag Archipelago" had to suffer, Dudek says. "Compared with their Soviet teachers, Czechoslovak communists were only apprentices. But they were trying hard," Dudek writes, recalling the names of communist prisons and labour camps established in Czechoslovakia, according to the Soviet model. These places have become symbols of cruelty, he adds. Significant writers were also among the Czechoslovak prisoners of conscience, such as Karel Pecka dubbed "Czech Solzhenitsyn" and Jiri Stransky, who later described the atmosphere in the labour camps in their works. However, none of them has approached Solzhenitsyn's deep and penetrating look, Dudek writes in MfD.
(Ceske Noviny)
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