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Carolina (English) No 033
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STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA
School of Social Science of Charles University
Smetanovo nabr. 6
110 01 Prague 1
C.S.F.R.
e-mail address: CAROLINA@CSEARN.BITNET
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C A R O L I N A No 33, Friday, June 24, 1992.
THE EVENTS OF THE LAST WEEK {from June 18-24}
Havel has decided to run
The fact that Vaclav Klaus was nominated for the prime ministership
of the Czech government rather than the Federal government will not
influence Vaclav Havel's attitudes to his run for the president.
"President Havel has repeatedly stressed that he would not be
a liquidator. The personal complexion of the government does not
determine whether the government is or is not in liquidation. It would
have to be pronounced aloud and explicitly and it would have to be
a result of a disagreement in the talks between ODS and HZDS, and not
a result of a personal decision by one of the parties involved." quotes
Friday (June 19) daily Mlada fronta Dnes the presidential spokesman M.
Zantovsky.
During the Monday briefing at Prague Castle M. Zantovsky recalled
president Havel's opinion that the most democratic and most moral way to
decide whether the state should be split is a referendum. If some other
constitutional way can be found (which would entitle a modification of
the federal constitution), the Czechoslovak president will respect it.
However, by M. Zantovsky, V. Havel has not given up on the constitution
of CSFR and, hence, on the federation, says Tuesday (June 23) daily
Lidove noviny. This week the president is scheduled to appear in the
parliament during the first common session of both houses. He is to
deliver a speech analyzing the state of the country.
Talks between ODS and HZDS in Bratislava
An agreement about proposed principles for The program announcement
of the Federal government and a political agreement between ODS and HZDS
are results of almost fourteen hour negotiations between the
representatives of both parties which took place on Friday, June 19, in
Bratislava.
Both sides acknowledge the historic responsibility thrust upon them
by the 1992 elections in Czech and Slovak republics, and express their
desire to resolve problems in a constitutional way in cooperation. In
this situation they consider as their common task to initiate by all
legal means a process which will lead to an agreement between the
parliaments of both republics about the constitutional form of the
common state by September 30, 1992.
Both sides also acknowledge the differences in their respective
election platforms - ODS considers a federation as the only reasonable
and functional form of a common state (as the unique subject of the
international law), while HZDS still considers a confederation of two
internationally recognized republics as the desired form of the common
state. ODS does not consider such a confederation to be a single common
state, but a union of two sovereign states. Rather than such
a confederation, ODS prefers two sovereign states, i.e.,
a constitutional split of the republic into two.
According to the preamble of the principles of The program
announcement of the Federal government, the Federal government
understands its mandate as temporary only. The program announcement
focuses only on a limited set of problems the government considers
significant at this point of time.
In the document it is stated that the Federal government declares
it imperative to ensure continuity of both the Federal institutions and
the processes originating after November 1989. It further states that
the Federal government wants to transfer more powers to the civic
sphere, and if mandated so, to create conditions for a smooth
functioning of two sovereign internationally recognized states.
The proposal of the program announcement of the Federal government
consists of several parts concerning legislation, foreign affairs,
security, and defense. The part concerning the economic policy stresses
that the priority of the governmental policy will be a gradual transfer
from a stabilizing policy to a growth oriented policy with respect to
the completion of the first stage of the transformation process.
The principles of the program announcement of the Federal
government are binding for both ODS and HZDS. Based on this, both
parties will regularly inform and consult the other party in the Federal
parliament.
ODS and HZDS also agreed on a new structure of the Federal
government. The number of its members will be reduced to 10 from the
original 16, the number of ministries will be reduced to 5 from the
original 12, and the number of state officials (public servants) will
also be reduced. The Federal ministries of finances, defense, internal
affairs, foreign affairs, and economy will be preserved. There were no
negotiations concerning the personal assignments to the positions of the
government.
Nominations to parliament functions
Michal Kovac, a vice-chairman of HZDS, is nominated for the
position of the president of the parliament. The 62 year old engineer
served in 1989-91 as the minister of finances in the Slovak government
led by V. Meciar.
Filip Sedivy, a 38 year old lawyer from ODS, is nominated for the
post of the first deputy of the president of the parliament.
Vaclav Benda, from KDS, is nominated for the post of the president
of the House of Commons (upper chamber, Congress) of the parliament. The
46 year old doctor of philosophy is the only former dissident among all
candidates for parliament functions.
40 year old Roman Zelenay, from HZDS, is nominated as the candidate
for the post of the president of the House of Peoples (lower chamber,
Senate) of the parliament.
The presidents of the houses are simultaneously deputy presidents
of the parliament. All four candidates were members of the previous
parliament.
These nominations were agreed upon on Wednesday, June 17, by all
parties represented in the parliament.
The parties in the parliament also agreed that one of other two
deputy presidents of the parliament will be chosen from the second
strongest Slovak party - The party of democratic left. Jozef Stank who
acted in the same capacity in the previous parliament was designated for
the post.
Still open is the position of the fourth and last deputy president
of the parliament. An interest for the post has been indicated by
KDU-CSL with a support from ODS, by the Left block (a coalition of the
Communist party of Bohemia and Moravia and the Democratic left CSFR), by
the Czechoslovak Social Democracy with a support from the Liberal Social
Union.
These nominations will be voted upon during the common meeting of
both houses of the parliament to be held by the end of this week by the
newly elected members. The representatives of the parties in parliament
agreed on the date for the election of the president of Czechoslovakia
- Friday, July 3, 1992.
SDL will not support Havel in his bid for president
"The Party of democratic left will not support Vaclav Havel's bid
for the president" - was announced by the chairman of SDL Peter Weiss on
Sunday after the weekend meeting of the republic committee of SDL that
analyzed Havel's conduct as the president so far.
The press reminds the readers that the candidate for the president
of the state must get at least 45 votes in the first round and at least
38 votes in the second round in House of Peoples of the parliament, and
the Slovak parties not supporting Havel's bid can master 55 votes out of
the total of 75 (HZDS 33, SDL 13, and SNS 9).
Second round of privatization starts July 8
The second round of coupon privatization is scheduled to start on
July 8. The start originally planned for July 1 was moved mainly for
slower-than-expected computer processing of bids by the owners of the
coupon booklets. A significant number of people used the possibility to
bid for shares of more than one company simultaneously.
The definite approval of the date is in the hands of minister
Vaclav Klaus who is empowered to do so by the law after consultations
with coupon Czech and Slovak ministers for privatization. By his decree,
though, the names of companies for which demand exceeded supply in the
first round (and so the bids by the owners of the coupon booklets could
not be considered) must be published by June 30.
The initial meeting of the Slovak parliament
The Slovak National Council had its initial meeting on Tuesday, June
23 as the first of the newly elected parliaments. 150 members of
parliament took the parliamentary oath in which they promised loyalty to
the Czechoslovak republic. The parliament elected its chairman Ivan
Gasparovic (The Movement for Democratic Slovakia) by a vote of 124 to
24. Ivan Gasparovic is 51 years old, since July 1990 until March this
year when he was suspended from the office, he had worked as
a prosecutor general of the CSFR.
The first vice-chairman Peter Weiss, the leader of the Slovak
Democratic Left Party was elected by a vote 102 to 40.
The other elected vice-chairmen are Augustin Marian Huska (HZDS) and
Jozef Prokes (Slovak National Party).
Prior to the elections of the officials of Slovak parliament, spoke
in behalf of the parliamentary club of Christian Democrats (KDH), Jan
Carnogursky. He pointed out that the victorious party HZDS tries to
occupy a majority of seats in three important committees and that this
is considered as a violation of democracy by parliamentary members from
the KDH, hence the parliamentary members from KDH did not vote for the
proposed slate of candidates.
The chairman of the Slovak parliament Ivan Gasparovic asked Vladimir
Meciar to put together the new Slovak government. The government of Jan
Carnogursky should resign on Wednesday, June 24, on its last meeting.
Thanks to the former federal government
President Vaclav Havel expressed gratitude to the resigning federal
government at the Prague Castle on Tuesday, June 23. He thanked to the
former government for everything it has done during the past two years.
He said that the former government had his full cooperation and
especially the cooperation between him and the former prime minister
Marian Calfa was exceptional.
WEATHER
After a hot, sunny weekend it has been raining not only in Prague.
The weather remains warm and therefore mushrooms should grow.
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We would like to thank the following peaples for their help with
the translation from the Czech version of Carolina.
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