Constitutional debate in the Czech Republic

This report looks at the Czech media debate on the European Constitution in the period between French and Dutch “no” to the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE) and po- litical agreement on the Reform Treaty (June 2005 to June 2007). Based on quantitative and qualitative analyses of the six Czech printed media, the present study confirms that the debate on the European constitution was largely national with overwhelming dominance of Czech actors. The study also indi- cates strong politisation and personalisation of the Czech media debate. The results identify two dom- inant groups of actors and topics in mutual opposition. The first is represented by President Klaus and ODS politicians who oppose the European constitution project. The other group is formed by CSSD politicians and the Chair Jiri Paroubek who support the continutation of the common European Con- stitution project.