Most indepedent economists point out that data published in the state budget deficit development graph are innacurate and badly processed. The country's reputation with investors and financiers is at stake.

There are many things a minister can say at his party's campaign meeting, but state administration matters should not be misused in the name of campaigning.

There is also the fact that Finance Ministry money was used to pay for the advertisement, which means taxpayers picked up the bill. To be fair, Tlustý isn't the first to do this. It's a hard pill to swallow that the Government Office used to pay former Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek's lawyers in his private legal cases. It's unbelievable the things politicians get used to in this country, like not marking any difference between government business, political campaigning and private trips. Maybe they find it impossible to do so. After all, the campaign is going on all the time, Macháček writes.

On one side, Mirek Topolánek is doing everything to win confidence in the Chamber of Deputies for his Civic Democratic Party (ODS) Cabinet, and on the other he keeps ruining all his progress, writes Martin Komárek in Mladá fronta Dnes Sept. 29.

So why is he behaving like a schizophrenic?

All parties except the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) favor early polls, and it would therefore seem fairly comfortable to approve a temporary ODS Cabinet until then. However, the ODS insists on its pre-election program. It postpones the validity of laws passed by the ČSSD and the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), like the Labor Code.

The ODS has been sacking people connected with the previous ČSSD government with the force of a private television channel director. Not to mention that Ivan Langer (ODS), who is in charge of the Interior Ministry, frightens the somewhat paranoid ČSSD leaders, who'd be foolish to support Topolánek's cabinet. At the same time, any deal between the ODS and the KSČM seems risky for both sides.

Topolánek is forced to show two faces to the public. One for ODS voters, suggesting he continues in his fight "against socialists," which after all won him four elections already. To others he must demonstrate the image of a conciliatory statesman who wants the best for his country — in this case the best being an early election. Most of the public calls for the same. Early polls are still a likely option, even if the cabinet does fail to win support.

President Václav Klaus is sending out signals that he is ready to appoint a civil servant prime minister, while Paroubek's chances of being asked to form a government are very slim. A neutral Cabinet approved by Klaus, Topolánek and Paroubek would spare the country an increasingly devastating total political war.

Both Topolánek and Paroubek have already shown the nation that they are tough fighters; now it's time for them to undergo a maturity test and at least agree on the rules of their next fight, Komárek writes.