Fischer's fragile popularity

Blesk printed a list yesterday of the 22 reasons why voters love PM Jan Fischer. He's educated, respectable, nonpartisan, economical, repentant of his Communist past and even- tempered, to name a few. He has also avoided any scandals, Blesk said. Well, not quite, actually. It's true that Fischer escaped mostly unscathed from allegations of two irregular tenders at the Statistical Office, of which he is officially still the president, but he's not faring as well with regard to claims of succumbing to pressure from the coal lobby. Influential commentators such as Jaroslav Plesl of LN and Jiří Leschtina of HN are starting to question the link between Czech Coal and Fischer's chief adviser, Vladimír Mlynář. Czech Coal is fighting for its life, but there's no evidence that it has done anything wrong. If anyone is at fault, it seems to be Mlynář. Another of Fischer's attributes, according to Blesk, is that he knows when to let go. If he wants to finish as the most popular Czech PM ever, he'll probably have to let go of Mlynář sooner than later. [Czech Republic Lidové noviny Hospodářské noviny Martin Bursík MUS]