Zeman evades key issues in first presidential speech, analysts say

Prague, March 8 (CTK) - New Czech President Milos Zeman failed to cover a lot of topics that it would have been good to mention in his inauguration address Friday, political scientist Petr Just told CTK, adding that foreign policy that is one of the domains of the head of Czech state is one of the omitted topics.

He said he appreciated Zeman saying the president should be a neutral field for a dialogue of parties and organisations.

"I consider this the best part of the speech. He came close to the president's role here the most," Just said.

Political analyst Tomas Lebeda said he believes the message of Zeman's inauguration address was that he would try to "transform the presidency" and that he as the first Czech directly elected president wanted to more rely on public support.

According to Lebeda, Zeman's mention that he would try to bring together the trade unions and employers is crucial as this is the responsibility of the government.

Both Lebeda and Just said Zeman in his speech uselessly criticised media, which he does very often.

Zeman said Godfather-like mafias, neo-Nazi commandos and a part of the media are islands of negative deviation.

Lebeda said it is alarming that Zeman put media on a par with mafia and neo-Nazis.

However, it is even more alarming that Zeman's words about a fight against media was spontaneously applauded, he said. Unfortunately, this shows what the Czech political representatives believe, Lebeda added.

Just and Lebeda also shared the view that it was unfortunate to open the speech with a reference to the "opposition agreement" power sharing pact that Zeman and Klaus, then leaders of the two biggest rival parties, had observed from 1998 to 2002. Under the opposition agreement, Zeman's Social Democrat (CSSD) minority government was supported by the rightist Civic Democrats (ODS).

"If Zeman as president declares that he wants to unite society, it is not right to begin the speech with a reference to the time when the political players did not help calm it down very much," Just said.

"The opposition agreement brought a lot of problematic phenomena to Czech society," Lebeda said.

Just said Zeman seemed unusually nervous and his voice was shaking at the beginning of his speech.

Even a speaker of Zeman's format was affected by the extraordinary occasion, he added.

Zeman's vigour apparently returned when he started criticising media, Just said.