CCCCC AA RRRRR OOOO LL II NN N AA CC AA A RR R OO O LL II NNN N AA A CC AA A RRRRR OO O LL II NN N N AA A CC AAAAAA RR R OO O LL II NN NN AAAAAA CCCCC AA A RR R OOOO LLLLLL II NN N AA A 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 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. ==================================================================== We would like to thank the following peaples for their help with the translation from the Czech version of Carolina. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. To subscribe Carolina please send the e-mail message with subject "Carolina/Eng: Subscription" for the english version (and "Carolina/Cs: Subscription" for the czech version) on our e-mail address above. To drop sending you replace the word Subscription" by "Unsubscription". The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated.