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Carolina (English) No 207
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STUDENTS' E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECH REPUBLIC
Faculty of Social Science of Charles University
Smetanovo nabr. 6
110 01 Prague 1
Czech Republic
e-mail: CAROLINA@cuni.cz
tel: (+42 2) 24810804, ext. 252, fax: (+42 2) 24810987
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
C A R O L I N A No 207, Friday, June 14, 1996.
FROM THE EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK (June 6-13)
Havel at Meeting of 9 Presidents
Nine central European presidents met June 8 in Lancut, Poland,
mainly to discuss the expansion of the EU and NATO, but also the
post-election situation in the Czech Republic.
When asked if he worries about the stability of the country after
the elections, Czech President Vaclav Havel replied "I am a little upset
when someone looks at the Czech Republic differently than at other
European democracies. These are countries that no one doubts the
democracy of, and no one doubts their democratic structure, even though
they have a new government every half-year, and new elections every
other year."
The President went on to announce he thinks several regional
security structures, which would cooperate together, should be created
in Europe. NATO should then help solve regional conflicts, including
those caused by terrorism.
Livia Savelkova/Andrea Snyder
Klaus Negotiates Formation of Government
After a series of meetings between President Vaclav Havel and the
heads of the four parliamentary parties ODS, ODA, KDU-CSL, and CSSD (see
Carolina 206), ODS Chairman and incumbent Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus
was entrusted with negotiations to form a new government June 6.
Meetings with the president showed Klaus should try to construct
a minority coalition with the silent support of the Social Democrats
(CSSD).
Coalition partners ODS, ODA and KDU-CSL met for the first time June
7. On the same day, CSSD Chairman Milos Zeman announced at a press
conference he will run for the position of Parliament chairman.
A second coalition meeting was held June 11, where partners decided
the chairman of the government should be Klaus once again.
The third round of talks took place June 12, without reaching
a final agreement on the government's composition. It is still not clear
whether ODS will have the same amount of seats in the government as
KDU-CSL and ODA combined, or if ODS will maintain its present majority.
The coalition wants to decrease the number of members of government
from 19 to anywhere from 17 to 14. The positions of Minister without
Portfolio, Privatization Minister, Economy Minister and Minister for
Economic Competition may be discarded. The Office for Legislation and
Public Authority should become a part of the Ministry of Justice.
After the June 11 meeting, Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak
People's Party (KDU-CSL) Chairman Josef Lux said the coalition has
agreed that, along with Vaclav Klaus, fellow ODS members Josef Zieleniec
(Foreign Minister), Ivan Kocarnik (Finance Minister), Jan Strasky
(Health Minister), Jan Ruml (Interior Minister) and Ivan Pilip
(Education Minister) will also maintain their positions.
Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) Chairman Jan Kalvoda declined to
mention the names of the future ministers to journalists, though it is
known ODA joined the government with the conditions of a clearly defined
government program and ensured support of the Social Democrats in
a minority government.
The next coalition meetings will be held June 14.
Josef Vicari/Andrea Snyder
Parliament News
Parliament met for the last time June 6. Parliament Chairman Milan
Uhde gave a farewell speech, and President Vaclav Havel came to thank
deputies for their work.
The meetings of the last two parliamentary clubs - the Civic
Democratic Party (ODS) and the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD)
- were held June 11. ODS club Chairman Jiri Honajzer and Vice-Chairmen
S. Volak and J. Holub were presented with mandates. When issues
concerning the government's composition will be cleared up, probably in
a month, elections for the club leaders will be held again. In the
Social Democrats' corner, Stanislav Gross (at 26 the youngest member of
Parliament) was voted in again as club chairman, and Vaclav Grulich as
vice-chairman.
Ivan Masek remains in the position of Civic Democratic Alliance
club leader, and Miloslav Vyborny will head the Christian Democratic
Union-Czechoslovak People's Party club. Management changed in two camps
only - the quasi-fascist Republicans and the Communists, who decided to
meet and appoint their parliamentary leaders outside Parliament building
right after the elections. Party Chairman Miroslav Sladek will lead the
Republicans, and former federal parliamentary deputy Vaclav Filip will
head the Communist club.
Jaromir Vicari/Andrea Snyder
Zeman's Scandalous Declaration
During an interview with the German weekly Focus, Social Democrat
Chairman Milos Zeman compared Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus with Adolf
Hitler. "Imagine Klaus saying 'I am for self-rule, for the ombudsman,
against money laundering, for the European Social Charter'. That would
be like Hitler saying, 'I love all the Jews.'"
This announcement caused an uproar in the Czech press. The
left-wing daily Pravo ran a headline saying "Zeman Shoots into His Own
Basket." Zeman denies he wanted to compare Klaus to Hitler in any way.
Klaus refused to comment June 10, but said during a radio interview
"Although I do not particularly care for Milos Zeman, and fundamentally
do not agree with him politically, I accept him as a standard
politician, with whom I am capable of negotiating and prepared to
negotiate."
Livia Savelkova/Andrea Snyder
2.25 Million Watch Election Shows on Czech Television
According to a poll conducted by Czech Television, a minimum of
viewers followed election campaign shows, but when the voting booths
closed June 1, more than a million people watched the program "Elections
96".
Viewers were most interested in post-election analysis and election
results. Czech Television's study showed that probably 1,200,000 people
were tuned in to the election program, nearly three times more than the
viewership of private television Nova's rival show, "The Battle over
Parliament".
Election results upped interest in the Sunday discussion program
"Debata," which featured representatives of the six parliamentary
parties. Czech Television said interest in the election theme increased
in accordance to the viewers' levels of education. Interest in election
coverage was supposedly the same in all age brackets, with a roughly 2
per cent margin dividing the oldest and youngest groups of viewers.
Livia Savelkova/Andrea Snyder
Defeated Parties Deal with Election Failure
Democratic Union (DEU) Chairwoman Alena Hromadkova, whose party did
not make it into Parliament (with 2.8 per cent of the vote), resigned
from her position June 7. The new DEU chairman should be elected by the
June DU general meeting.
Also Jan Jegla, leader of Czech-Moravian Union of the Center (CMUS,
0.45 per cent), offered his resignation. All the party employees were
fired after the unsuccessful elections .
The Free Democrats-Liberal National Social Party (2.05 per cent)
will fire 30 per cent of its employees. The Brno party organization
asked Co-Chairmen Jiri Dienstbier and Vavrinec Bodenlos to resign. Both
leaders declared any future changes will be decided by the party general
meeting.
Milan Smid/Katerina Zachovalova
French Airbus Emergency Landing in Prague
An anonymous phone call forced the landing of an Air France Airbus
320 flying from Warsaw to Paris June 10. According to the phone call,
a bomb had been placed on board. Medical Emergency Service and the
police arrived at the airport around 2:30 p.m.. Bomb squad members
searching the plane did not find any explosive materials and the plane
left for Paris by 7 p.m.. It was the first such event to occur at Ruzyne
Airport, though traffic at the airport was not interrupted.
Isar A. W./Katerina Zachovalova
Foreigner Police Suspected of Bribe-Taking
The Ministry of Interior has been investigating the foreigner police
department for several months, because of suspicions that the department
is issuing documents to foreigners illegally and taking money for it,
according to the June 12 issue of Czech daily MF DNES. Only one
foreigner police officer is in custody, but investigators say there are
more similar cases in the department.
The policeman in custody is charged with improperly granting a visa
or permanent residency. It has not yet been possible to prove any
bribery took place. The foreigner police department is allegedly most
often offered bribes by Russians and former Yugoslavians. It is said
foreigners pay 10,000 deutschmarks for Czech citizenship and 2,000 DEM
for a visa.
Isar A. W./Katerina Zachovalova
FROM SLOVAKIA
Meciar Comments on Czech Elections
Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar, who congratulated Czech Prime
Minister Vaclav Klaus immediately after the elections on his victory and
wished him luck in forming a new government, declared that the coalition
paid the price for its unwillingness to decentralize state
administration. Meciar said Czech elections proved the shakiness of
Europe. "The Slovak path signifies stability and therefore it is
necessary to maintain peace here," said Meciar to Czech daily MF DNES.
Livia Savelkova/Klara Schirova
ECONOMY
Expert Expectations for Inflation
May inflation in the Czech Republic reached .6 per cent, as had
predicted a majority of specialists. Only the Ministry of Finance
announced it had expected a .4 per cent rise in prices. Consumer price
growth fluctuates at about .9 per cent monthly this year, which could
lead to 11 per cent inflation for the whole year. Financial experts
oppose this view, because the level of inflation is usually lower in
summer months.
This year inflation grows particularly because of the rise of food
prices. Estimates say grocery prices have risen 8.6 per cent (including
tobacco and beverage prices). Another factor is that rent payments'
share of all costs exceeds 14 per cent. In the last 12 months rents have
risen 11 per cent. Transportation costs are often cited as a third
factor impacting price results.
Experts agree food prices will stagnate in future months, which
would mean a certain easing of hitherto development.
Barbora Spevakova/Klara Schirova
Enterpreneurial Bank Under Forced Administration
The Czech National Bank (CNB) imposed forced admninistration on the
Enterpreneurial Bank (Podnikatelska Banka), one of the smallest banks in
the Czech Republic with about 30,000 clients.
CNB decreased the bank's basic capital from 700 million Czech
crowns to 1 million Czech crowns as a consequence of the bank's heavy
1995 financial losses of about 1 billion Czech crowns.
As in the case of First Silesian bank (see Carolina 203), clients
of Entrepreneurial Bank will get their 4 million Czech crowns in
deposits back.
Enterpreneurial Bank is the seventh bank since 1990 to enter forced
administration. The bank was established in 1992 by various
entrepreneurial groups and since 1994 has been under the control of the
SPG financial group. Besides this bank the SPG controls also the
Entrepreneurial Pension Fund, one of the country's two largest such
funds.
Barbora Spevakova/Milan Smid
Exchange Rates at the Czech National Bank
(valid from June 13)
country currency
------------------------------------------
Australia 1 AUD 22.154
Belgium 100 BEF 88.603
Great Britain 1 GBP 42.873
Denmark 1 DKK 4.725
Finland 1 FIM 5.948
France 1 FRF 5.372
Ireland 1 IEP 44.070
Italy 1000 ITL 18.035
Japan 100 JPY 25.624
Canada 1 CAD 20.435
Luxemburg 100 LUF 88.603
Netherlands 1 NLG 16.278
Norway 1 NOK 4.262
New Zealand 1 NZD 18.795
Portugal 100 PTE 17.676
Austria 1 ATS 2.589
Greece 100 GRD 11.514
Slovakia 100 SKK 89.793
Germany 1 DEM 18.217
Spain 100 ESP 21.572
Sweden 1 SEK 4.160
Switzerland 1 CHF 22.142
USA 1 USD 27.954
ECU 1 XEU 34.475
SDR 1 XDR 40.197
CULTURE
Sting in Prague
British singer Sting performed before a sold-out Sport Hall in
Prague June 6. In addition to songs from his new album Mercury Falling,
Sting (born Gordon Sumner) and his band performed pieces dating back to
1984, when the singer was a member of The Police. The concert's peak
were the selections Synchronicity, Roxanne and When the World Is Running
Down. After the last songs, Demolition Man and Englishman in New York,
the enthused crowd called Sting out for four encores. Immediately after
the show the singer returned to London in his private plane.
Alida Kassymova/Michael Bluhm
SPORT
Czechs Defeated 0-2 by Germans at EURO 96
The Czech national soccer team lost its first match at EURO 96 in
Britain against 1990 World Champion Germany, 0-2.
The Czechs started the match fearlessly, without any respect for
the favored team, and were the more active team during first five
minutes. However, that was nearly all for the rest of the match. In the
course of time the Germans started to be dangerous, especially in middle
part of the field. Both goals, scored in the 26th and 32nd minutes, came
from similar situations, when Czech defenders gave German players free
space to advance and to shoot at Kouba's goal.
In the second half of match Frydek was replaced by Berger. Also
surprisingly, the top Czech-league player, Poborsky, was called off,
replaced by Drulak. The game became more balanced then, caused more by
German satisfaction with the result than by better Czech performance.
However, nothing is lost for good. Two matches are still to be
played (against Italy and Russia), and for advancing into the
quarterfinal, four points from two victories will do.
Karel Bartek/Milan Smid
WEATHER
The warm and sunny weather of recent days, particularly during the
weekend, has forced thousands of Praguers to flee from the city's
burning streets and seek relief in the cooling waters of local swimming
pools. Czech weather last week was foremost influenced by a region of
high air pressure, with daily high temperatures around 30 degrees
Celsius/86 degrees Fahrenheit, and at night around 15 degrees
Celsius/59 degrees Fahrenheit.
Alida Kassymova/Michael Bluhm
English version edited by Michael Bluhm.
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