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 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. *********** 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.