Political party support polls keep placing the senior opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) in the lead — not exactly a big lead, but still one that's fairly visible. The very idea that the ČSSD will not form a government after the June elections amounts to possibly a first-ever case in the history of democratic Europe: When has a party achieved so much economic growth and still lost an election?

So why not be the first? Then again, why be the first?

I see at least three factors. The first and least important is that Culture Minister Vítězslav Jandák's manners have caused some intellectuals to rescind their support for the ČSSD.

More serious is the second factor. It was a mistake to take on the healthcare system with so close to the elections. Health Minister David Rath knows what he's doing, and his decisions make sense. But who cares as long as there is a phalanx of medical barons rising up against him who have managed to spread a suspicion that less revenue for the powerful amounts to worse health care? The lie is gradually fading away, but it is not yet gone completely.

The third factor could be a vital one. The ČSSD does not have enough close friends in the media world to spread objective information about its work. While witnessing the ČSSD press conference and wondering what the media coverage would be like this time, I remembered a notorious joke. President Bush and the Pope are on a small boat on a lake. The wind blows off the Pope's hat. Bush steps out of the boat and, walking on water, brings the hat back to the Pope. The next day American newspaper headlines read "President Bush can't swim!"

True, the ČSSD also makes errors of its own in its media image. Acting party head Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka failed on television to properly explain the chance offered by the ČSSD's proposed 60,000 Kč ($2,600) birth benefit. Not to mention Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek's statement that "voting for the Green Party means voting for (ODS chairman Mirek) Topolánek." Sobotka will surely do better in the future. Still, what's the use, if the media continue to say that the ČSSD can't swim, Hanák asks.

The problem of German waste piling up in Czech dumps is not a problem of German waste, but a problem of some adventurers who want to make money by skirting the law, Martin Komárek writes in Mladá fronta Dnes April 21.

The trend toward making money on various rules, prices and salaries in different countries is fine and positive if it's in accordance with the law. If it's not, it is necessary to catch the perpetrator, charge him and bring him to justice.

In the case of burning waste dumps, the reaction of Czech police came too late.

But the government, on the contrary, reacted prematurely and too loudly. To give Germany an ultimatum is pointless. It's as if the Czech Republic warned the United States that our citizens sometimes work there illegally.

Therefore, it was sensible to increase penalties for illegal dumping, to bring the suspects to justice — but to make this an international and almost a nationalist problem is foolish, writes Komárek.