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Carolina (English) No 036A
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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
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
C A R O L I N A No 36, Friday, July 17, 1992.
EVENTS OF THE LAST WEEK (July 11 - 17)
The Programme announcement of Czech government
At the meeting of Czech National Council (CNR) on Monday
July 13 Czech Premier Vaclav Klaus presented the programme of his
government. He proclaimed an unambiguous formulation of the
interests of the Czech republic, e.i. the continuation of the
radical economic transformation, the completion of legal and
democratic structure of the state, and the integration of the
republic into European and world institutions, as the fundamental
task of his government. The government, according to him, must
create such conditions as to allow the Czech state to continue
functioning even in the case that the constitutional talks with
the Slovak representatives are not successful and the federal
authorities are paralysed.
"The government intends to follow the constitutional path,
but it is not entirely in its hands how smooth the path will be.
We shall manoeuvre so that the will of the majority of the
citizens of Czech republic can be realized, while the right of
opinion, ethnic, or social minorities to have a say in everyday
problems of our society is protected", said V. Klaus. As the most
fundamental tasks of his government he named presentation of the
Constitution of the Czech republic to CNR, liberalization of
prices, liberalization of foreign trade, internal convertibility
of Czech currency, massive privatization, and balanced budget. He
concluded his presentation by asking the members of parliament to
approve the programme, and the citizens to show solidarity and
help.
The programme was later discussed by the parliamentary
clubs, individual committees of CNR, and by the plenary session
of CNR.
The government confirmed
At its Tuesday session CNR voted on its confirmation of the
new government. The government was approved; all members of the
government coalition and one member of LSU (altogether 105 votes)
voted for the confirmation, while against were members of the
Left Block, HSD-SMS, and Sladek's republicans (63 votes in
total). Twenty seven members of CSSD and LSU abstained.
Sovereignty of Slovakia
A formal declaration of Sovereignty of Slovakia is planned
for Friday, July 17 at a ceremonial session of Slovak parliament.
At the same time the parliament is to approve a proposition of
its programme. It is this proposition of the programme that is
being discussed, since its current formulation is not acceptable
to KDH, both Hungarian parties in the parliament, and SDL.
Bonfires in Slovakia
"Bonfires of Sovereignty" are to be lit on Friday night in many
places in Slovakia. It was announced yesterday by representatives
of the Union of Slovak Journalists (Sdruzeni slovenskych
novinaru), Congress of Slovak Intelligencia (Kongres slovenske
inteligence), and the artistic arm of Matice Slovenska. This
national celebration will follow the declaration of sovereignty,
they claim. The biggest bonfire is to be lit beside the church of
St. Jan near Kremnicka Bana where the alleged centre of Europe is
believed to be. Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar is expected to
attend.
The chairman of federal parliament met with V. Havel
President Vaclav Havel met on July 13 with M. Kovac, the
chairman of federal parliament. M. Kovac proposed to the
president to dismiss the spring session of the parliament, which
would result in postponement of the next round of presidential
elections. The repetitive elections would harm the international
reputation of Czechoslovakia and would have a negative impact
upon peace on the domestic scene, the chairman of parliament
said. Acceptance of Czech and Slovak constitutions, which require
the election of presidents of Czech republic and Slovak republic,
would result in a new situation, in which there will be no need
for a federal president, M. Kovac said. V. Havel agreed with this
argument and he will discuss it with legislation experts.
Federal parliament has submitted a proposal to change the
rules about presidential elections so that the third round would
take place in late August or at the beginning of September. By
that time, Slovakia will have its own constitution with the
office of Slovak president set forth in it. Federal parliament
can then work on preparation of the new laws instead of
hopelessly trying to elect a president.
President Wasn't Elected Again
The second turn of presidential elections took place on
Thursday morning with only one candidate, Mr. Miloslav Sladek,
member of Parliament,the former censor and leader of Republican
Party. The failure of his candidacy was not surprising. Much more
surprising was the number of votes he has got. Though his party
has only 14 seats in the Parliament, 58 memebers of Parliament
voted for him in the first round and 60 in the second round.
The Parliament decided to provide the third turn of
presidential election on July 30. The expected prolongation of
interterm between turns didn_t happen. Vaclav Havel is allowed to
be a candidate in the third turn. He has to take decision befire
Monday July 27.
New ambassador in USA
President Vaclav Havel meets this week with the new Austrian
president T. Klestil, the spokesman for president M. Zantovsky
announced on a regular briefing on July 13. The president will
also give a speech about his political future soon. At the
brifing M. Zantovsky confirmed that he will be nominated as a new
ambassador to the USA and that he has been already introduced to
G. Bush in Helsinki.
Letter of Invitation for Military Invasion Into
Czechoslovakia Given to Vaclav Havel
Vaclav havel announced important information connected with
invasion of armies of Warsaw Pact to Czechoslovakia in 1968
during the press conference on Prague castle. Boris Jelcin,
president of Russia, delivered an envelope with so-called "Letter
of Invitation" (the existence of which was denied several times),
used by Leonid Brezhnev as an excuse for invasion. The letter,
written in Russian a addressed directly to Brezhnev_s hands, has
been signed by 5 representatives of leadership of CP of
Czechoslovakia of that period: Vasil Bilak, Alois Indra, Drahomil
Kolder, Oldrich Svestka a Antonin Kapek.
WEATHER
The weather has become colder during the last week. The
mushroom pickers returning from vacations last week were
disappointed. There was no explosion of mushrooms which they had
expected.
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Carolina editors desk
Last week the editors of Carolina received from Mellon
foundation a new modem Telebit T 3000, which improves the quality
of communication. Prof. Ruth from MIT, who visited our staff on
Monday, was an intermediary in obtaining this gift. We would like
to express our gratitude to him this way.
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