Slovak press: ČSSD makes mistake by removing Dienstbier

Bratislava, March 19 (CTK) - The opposition Czech Social Democrats (CSSD) have made a mistake by not re-electing their unsuccessful presidential candidate Jiri Dienstbier, 43, as the party's deputy chairman at the weekend election congress, the Slovak daily Sme writes Tuesday.

The paper says Dienstbier's negative stance on new Czech President Milos Zeman, former CSSD chairman, was probably behind his departure from the CSSD leadership.

"Not only that Dienstbier is the CSSD's most popular politician and to push him of the running a year ahead of (general) elections is imprudent, but for voters, Dienstbier, despite his mistakes, embodies the CSSD's willingness to changes that the left needs more than the right wing in the Czech Republic as well. He has been the only CSSD politicians who has at least partially stood up openly against godfathers and mafias controlling the party," Sme writes.

The label "godfathers" is used for dubious influential businessmen pulling the strings thanks to their links to politicians.

Sme notes that the pro-Zeman wing has won a decisive position in the CSSD.

"A pardon from Zeman was so important for the CSSD that it sacrificed its deputy chairman Dienstbier who was merely guilty of being the only one in the party to name Zeman's problems and who has not changed his view since then," Sme points out.

It compares the CSSD's relation to Zeman to a dog that had dared to bark at the master but as soon as it realised the mistake, it quickly started wagging its tail to end up in obediently lying on its back at the weekend congress in Ostrava (north Moravia)," Sme writes.

It adds that the beginning of Dienstbier's fall and the parallel rise of some regional politicians who are allegedly entangled in endless scandals with abuse of EU funds symbolically foreshadows further developments in the CSSD and the giving up of the party's internal reforms.

"Moreover, the CSSD will be able to compensate such a twist, its symbiosis with Zeman - a 'bipedal corruption symbol', and a subsequent probable outflow of centrist voters by strengthening its social demagoguery and the effort to win over voters of the Communists," Sme writes in conclusion.