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 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. Send them please to the address: CAROLINA@cuni.cz To subscribe to CAROLINA news you send an e-mail message to the address LISTSERV@listserv.cesnet.cz The text of message for subscription of the English version must be: SUBSCRIBE CAR-ENG First name Last name or for the Czech version SUBSCRIBE CAR-CS First name Last name To delete your subscription from the list of subscribers you send the following message to the address LISTSERV@listserv.cesnet.cz: SIGNOFF CAR-ENG or SIGNOFF CAR-CS We ask you not to send automatic replies to our list. 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