Jezek argues that the Prague City Hall did not observe the agreement on the sale of the land for the construction of the NK building at Prague-Letna. Nevertheless, Petracek writes, Jehlicka alone did not secure the plot for the building before the international architectonic contest that the London-based studio of renowned Czech-born architect Jan Kaplicky won last year. Most recently, Culture Minister Vaclav Jehlicka (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) announced that Kaplicky's "octopus," as the design is dubbed, would not stand at Letna. Jezek thereby opposes Jehlicka, but at the same time he is running for the Senate for the same party.
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Plans for a national security body for Germany ... Idealist Jezek thus faces a risk of being afflicted by the dirt of politics, Petracek says. According to Jezek, there is only one problem in the dispute about Kaplicky's blob, namely the dispute about the plot. Nevertheless, actually there are so many problems it is hard to name them all, Petracek adds. Someone could also suit Jezek for not having solved the problem with the plot for a new NK previously, but neither Jezek's complaint nor any other possible suits would have a chance to solve anything, Petracek says. He who wants to push through a public building in Prague must fight a battle with the City Hall no matter how much he dislikes its officials. Jezek did not succeed in winning his fight for the blob, Petracek writes in LN. The junior ruling Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) have bad luck as their Culture Minister Vaclav Jehlicka has received the knife "to cut the throat of Kaplicky's library" that was forged at the Prague Castle (the presidential seat), Jiri Hanak writes in Pravo today. He adds that the "philistines" at the City Hall dominated by the senior ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) and the Castle, seat of President Vaclav Klaus, ODS honorary chairman, simply had to reject something as avant-garde as Kaplicky's blob. Klaus is one of the sharpest opponents of Kaplicky's project. Yet, the Christian Democrats are also hypocrites. They are fighting for the return of property to the church and at the same time their minister Cyril Svoboda is suing a church charity over a block of flats situated at an attractive address. Svoboda does not want "his house" to sponsor a church charity since in his opinion tax payers' money should be spent on this purpose, Hanak writes. There is something wrong with the alleged cooperation between EU Commissioner Vladimir Spidla (Social Democrats, CSSD) and the CSSD team for EP elections, Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in Pravo today. He recalls that the CSSD election team is headed by the controversial Karel Brezina, former minister in Milos Zeman's CSSD government (1998-2002), who became ill-famed as "the youngest government playboy in the history of mankind." Spidla, who replaced Zeman at the government and CSSD helm in 2002, distanced himself from Brezina and removed him from the "services for the CSSD." Six years ago any cooperation between Spidla and Brezina would be out of question, Mitrofanov says. He asks whether Spidla may have given up his principles or Brezina is just pragmatically extending the circles of possible CSSD supporters. Spidla on his part, has refused to comment on "domestic affairs" in his EC post. He has only said he is cooperating with CSSD MEPs' group head Libor Roucek in this respect. "The overtones are clear: the European Commissioner will help his party and the idea of European integration, but he will not waste himself on Brezina," Mitrofanov writes. The news about Spidla cooperating with Roucek who is a member of a team headed by Brezina confirms that Zeman's shadow is still hanging over the CSSD, Mitrofanov concludes.
(Ceske Noviny)
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