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 THE CZECH REPUBLIC Charles University in Prague Faculty of Social Sciences Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 Czech Republic e-mail: CAROLINA@mbox.fsv.cuni.cz tel: (+4202) 22112252, fax: (+4202) 24810987 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 340, Friday, July 16, 1999. FROM THE EVENTS OF THE PAST TWO WEEKS (JUNE 30 - JULY 14) Parliament: Milos Zeman's Government Is Not Good for Czech Republic By a vote of 90 to 67, deputies in Parliament's Chamber of Deputies showed their dissatisfaction with the first year of the Social Democrat minority Government. The deputies took the vote after Prime Minister Milos Zeman presented them with the Government's annual report. This unfavorable showing for the Czech Government was the result of parties to the right joining against the Cabinet' the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the Freedom Union (US) and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL). A vote for the resignation of the Government did not pass because of the wavering of some ODS deputies. Of ODS' 63 deputies, 37 asked the Government to resign. The daily Pravo quotes President Vaclav Havel's comments to the ODS deputies: I cannot understand how some party can say the Government is damaging the country and simultaneously express confidence. Either it is damaging the country and doesn't have my confidence, or it is not damaging the country and then they have my confidence. ODS deputies cannot initiate or support a vote of no-confidence in the Government under the terms of the Opposition Contract (see Carolina 297). Lida Truneckova/Irena Smejcova Press Bill Passes First Reading in Parliament The press bill, submitted by Culture Minister Pavel Dostal, was passed July 7 by Parliament's Chamber of Deputies into a second reading. Deputies made it known that they would debate the bill again and would try to improve the Government version. Opposition on the right attempted to vote down the bill, but they mustered only 84 of 186 votes (those against included deputies from the Freedom Union, the Christian Democrats and all but nine deputies of the Civic Democratic Party). The bill includes provisions (see Carolina 335) expanding the right to corrections, introducing a right to reply and to complain to the courts if anyone feels that a periodical has threatened violence against a group of people or propagated racial or ethnic hatred. Punishment would be a fine of up to 3 million crowns, a second conviction would mean the banning of the publication. Deputy Prime Minister for legislation Pavel Rychetsky said July 8 that it is necessary to understand the right to reply as a fulfillment of freedom of speech. Former Justice Minister and current Christian Democrat deputy Vlasta Parkanova said the Government-proposed right to reply far exceeds the reasonable need for privacy, which is regulated by the civil code. Considering that it's not confined to demonstrable and verifiable facts, it opens the media to all graphomaniacs and exhibitionists, foremost from the ranks of politicians, who always have something to say about or at least to everything, she said. Former Deputy Prime Minister and magazine editor and current Freedom Union deputy Vladimir Mlynar said he hoped that the worst passages in the bill could be eliminated in the second reading, making it possible to pass the bill. Pavlina Hodkova/Michael Bluhm Chamber of Deputies Gives Czech Emigres Chance for Czech Citizenship Parliament's Chamber of Deputies July 9, despite the resistance of Communists (KSCM) and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), passed by a vote of 103 to 66 a bill that should enable Czech emigres who lost their Czech citizenship between February 1948 to April 1990 to obtain it again. If the bill is approved by the Senate, these Czech emigres will have the right to vote, although only on Czech territory. The Restitution Act has not been opened again, said Interior Minister Vaclav Grulich to the daily MF DNES. An amendment to the Citizenship Act should enable Slovaks living in the Czech Republic since the split of Czechoslovakia and Czechs residing in Slovakia to get Czech passports more easily. Lida Truneckova/Miroslav Svenda NEWS IN BRIEF * Slovak President Rudolf Schuster arrived in Prague July 7 for his first official state visit. He proposed to Czech President Vaclav Havel the creation of a common policy for resolving the problems of the Romany minority. They agreed that relations between the countries should correspond to the fact that they are the closest of neighbors, undivided by a language barrier and connected by decades of shared history. The presidents will also encourage the definitive resolution of disputes about former Czechoslovak property by the end of the year. * The Government's proposal to raise taxes further on fuels and cigarettes and to increase the VAT for certain services, was rejected by Parliament's Chamber of Deputies July 8. * By six votes a proposed constitutional amendment allowing referendums was rejected for the 12th time by Parliament's chamber of Deputies July 13. * Police are investigating corruption involving entrance exams to Charles University in Prague's School of Law. The second exam period, during which the scandal was uncovered, will be repeated in September. Lida Truneckova/Miroslav Svenda FROM SLOVAKIA Disputes within Government Coalition For the first time since taking office last year, the Government coalition is facing difficulties, threatened not only by internal disagreements but also by pressure from the opposition Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) of former Premier Vladimir Meciar. The tension within the coalition arose from a dispute over the privatization of the Nafta Gbely oil refineries, which in 1996 during the reign of HZDS illegally became the property of Meciar crony Vladimir Poor. Current Premier Mikulas Dzurinda has demanded the recall of National Property Fund Chairman Ludovit Kanik of the coalition's Democratic Party l Dzurinda claims Kanik allowed Poor to sell his shares of the company to the American conglomerate Cinergy. Kanik has the support of his own party and the Christian Democratic Movement of Jan Carnogursky. These parties consider Economy Minister Ludovit Cernak responsible for the affair and demand his resignation, but Dzurinda is standing behind Cernak. The opposition is basing its pressure on the decision of the Constitutional Court, which declared illegal Dzurindals rescinding Meciar's pardons. Dzurinda, who enjoyed certain presidential powers when he became premier, rescinded Meciar's pardons for those responsible for the kidnapping of ormer president Michal Kovac's son and for thwarting the referendum on NATO membership. Dzurinda's withdrawal of the pardons allowed criminal prosecution of former secret-service chief Ivan Lexa and former Interior Minister Gustav Krajci, HZDS assemblyman. HZDS claims that its constitutional rights were violated and is asking for Dzurinda's resignation. Surprisingly, Justice Minister Carnogursky has agreed with the opposition on this issue. Both problems are to be discussed within next days in the National Assembly, where Dzurinda and Carnogursky will have to express their stance on the amnesty issue. The premier is prepared to combine a vote on Kanik's recall with a vote of confidence in his Government. Petr Kupec/Sofia Karakeva Language Law Causes Arguments The Slovak National Assembly July 10 approved a law regulating the use of languages of ethnic minorities. The norm was approved by a narrow majority, because the opposition boycotted the voting and the Government coalition's Hungarian Party (SMK) voted against the bill. The law provoked arguments not only in Slovakia but also abroad. While the European Commission expressed satisfaction with the law's approval, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry officially announced July 12 that the law damages previously satisfactorily evolving relations between Hungary and Slovakia. Hungary disagrees mainly with the paragraph that does not allow weddings, funerals or christenings in a minority language. Government politicians admit that this point might change in the future. We have not yet discussed, what's next for the coalition. Of course, we will evaluate the new situation,o said SMK assemblymenls club Chairman Gyula Bardos, according to the Czech daily MF DNES July 17. Bardos said the law's approval should not jeopardize the existence of the Government coalition. Petr Kupec/Sofia Karakeva Finland Introduces Visa Requirement for Slovaks Finland July 6 introduced for four months visa requirements for Slovaks, in response to the continuing flood of Slovak Romanies (Gypsies) to Finland. During the last few weeks almost 1,000 Romanies have arrived in Finland. According to Finland's Immigration Office, the number of immigrants declined two days after the visa requirements were introduced. The mass immigration was organized by the Slovak Romany Intelligence, which, along with most other Slovak Romany organizations, consider the situation of Romanies in Slovakia unsatisfactory and demand the resignation of Deputy Premier for Nationality Issues Pal Csaky. The case of Slovak Romanies asking Finland for asylum is evidently misuse of the right to political asylum,o said Csaky to the Czech daily MF DNES July 9. Because the Finnish Government agrees with the opinion that Slovakia is a democratic country and the Romanies' motivation for immigration is strictly economic, the Romanies' hopes for asylum are small. Finland's Immigration Office refused July 12 the first 150 requests for asylum and several Finnish Deputies visited Bratislava to help resolve the situation. Petr Kupec/Sofia Karakeva ECONOMY Czech Republic's Economic Performance Worst in Central Europe Statistics show that the Czech Republic has, because of a record drop in GDP in this year's first quarter, the worst economy in Central Europe, despite the slowing of growth in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. Factors contributing to the Czech Republic's crisis are a decline in growth in Germany and the effects of the Russian crisis. Other Czech problems are also plaguing Poland and Hungary' a foreign trade imbalance and a state budget deficit; Poland and Hungary have already reached about 75 per cent of their planned 1999 deficits. Analyst Petr Zahradnik of Conseq Finance said to the daily Hospodarske noviny that the Polish economy became overheated and its indicators resemble those of the Czech Republic's two years ago. The Czech Statistics Office announced July 12 that inflation in the Czech Republic is now 2 per cent, the lowest figure since the start of economic transformation in 1990. In comparison with last year, the biggest rise has been in the price of housing expenses - 13 per cent. On the other hand, the price of foodstuffs has fallen by 5 per cent. In comparison with May, consumer prices rose by 0.2 per cent. Pavlina Hodkova/Jakub Jirovec ECONOMY IN BRIEF * The Chamber of Deputies July 13 passed changes to the Labor Law. The amendments raise unemployment benefits, which will be now 2.5 times the poverty line - about 8,575 crowns per month. Unemployed people who attend re-qualification courses can receive 9,604 crowns per month. The unemployment rate rose to 8.3 per cent in June. * The Wall Street Journal July 1 issued in its Central European Economic Review supplement the TOP 500 list of Central European companies. The top Czech company was Skoda Auto, with sales of 3.29 billion USD in 1998. * The Czech Savings Bank (Ceska sporitelna) announced that the bank's losses were 1.5 billion crowns for the first half of 1999. According to international accounting standards, the Czech Savings Bank would show a profit of 1.17 billion crowns. * Skoda Plzen and AliaChem's main creditors July 9 signed a standstill agreement not to petition for the bankruptcy of the companies. * The general meeting of Jan Becher - Karlovarska Becherovka (JKBK) July 9 approved management's intention to buy Johann Becher OHG from the French distillery Pernod Richard. JKBK also plans to export throughout the world, mainly to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The company has one remaining trademark suit with Zdenek Hofman, who has been prevented from distribution by a preliminary injunction. Pavlina Hodkova/Jakub Jirovec Exchange Rates at the Czech National bank (valid July 15) -------------------------------------------------------- 1 EUR = 36.500 country currency CZK ---------------------------------------- Australia 1 AUD 23.726 Great Britain 1 GBP 55.863 Denmark 1 DKK 4.907 Japan 100 JPY 29.674 Canada 1 CAD 24.242 IMF 1 XDR 47.647 Hungary 100 HUF 14.657 Norway 1 NOK 4.487 New Zealand 1 NZD 18.767 Poland 1 PLN 9.148 Greece 100 GRD 11.239 Slovakia 100 SKK 81.382 Slovenia 100 SIT 18.696 Sweden 1 SEK 4.176 Switzerland 1 CHF 22.741 USA 1 USD 35.908 Exchange Rates of countries participating in the euro (converted from the euro rate) country currency CZK Belgium 100 BEF 90.481 Finland 1 FIM 6.139 France 1 FRF 5.564 Germany 1 DEM 18.662 Ireland 1 IEP 46.345 Italy 1000 ITL 18.851 Luxemburg 100 LUF 90.481 Netherlands 1 NLG 16.563 Portugal 100 PTE 18.206 Austria 1 ATS 2.653 Spain 100 ESP 22.937 CULTURE Thirty-Fourth International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary The 34th International Film Festival in western-Bohemia spa town Karlovy Vary showed 27 films from July 2-10. The Israeli film Yana's Friends from director Arik Kaplun won the festival's competition section, while a special award was given to the Swedish film Fucking Amal (its title for American distribution will be Show Me Love), the feature debut of director Lukas Moodysson. Both films won other awards at the festival, while audience demand for Fucking Amal, the story of a budding teenage lesbian relationship, forced the festival to add another showing of the film. The festival announced it had sold 110,000 tickets for 351 showings of the films, which were divided into sections such as the Forum of Independents, East of the West (for films from post-communist countries), Horizons (for the most sought-after new films) and this year's special section Focus on Kazakhstan. Although the festival reported more than 90-per-cent attendance for all showings, observers agreed that there were less people at this year' s festival than in the last two years. Talk at the festival centered on the new films of renowned directors' Karlovy Vary was host to the Czech premieres of Emir Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat, Nikita Michalkov's Barber of Siberia (attended by President Vaclav Havel), Pedro Almodovar's Everything about My Mother, Ken Loach's My Name Is Joe, Aki Kaurisma's Juha and Takeshi Kitano's Kikujiro. The inauguration of the festival was spiced up by a female streaker's sprint to the stage' she was advertising a porn magazine. The long, holiday weekend (July 5 is the anniversary of the arrival of Cyril and Methodius in 863, July 6 is the anniversary of the burning of John Huss at the stake in 1415) was accompanied by unusually warm temperatures, while festivalgoers stayed dry in the cinema during the second half. Festival organizers promised next year's 35th edition would feature a better program of films and be two days longer. This year's budget of 70 million crowns was 20 million less than planned, mainly thanks to earlier conflicts between the City of Karlovy Vary, the Culture Ministry and actor Jiri Bartoska's company Film Servis Festival, the main organizer of the festival. Michael Bluhm/Michael Bluhm Karel Gott Celebrates 60th Birthday Karel Gott, the Czech Republic's most famous singer, turned 60 July 14. The Prague Sport Hall sold out 13,000 tickets for the celebration, at which a host of celebrities rendered Gott's tunes. SPORTS Decathlete Dvorak Sets World Record of 8,994 Points The European Cup Superleague event in Prague's Strahov Stadium brought about an unexpected surprise for the home fans' decathlete Tomas Dvorak set a world record of 8,994 points. By three points Dvorak broke the seven-year-old record of American Dan O'Brien. Dvorak set personal bests in the 100m, long jump, shot put, discus and javelin. SPORTS IN BRIEF * Czech college athletes gathered 13 medals at the 20th University Games. The most successful athlete was swimmer Hana Cerna, winner of the 400 meter freestyle (in which she set a new Czech record), the 400m individual medley and a bronze medalist in the 1,500m freestyle. * Canoeist Martin Doktor, gold medalist in the Atlanta Olympic Games, won three silver medals (in the 1,000m, 500m and 200m) in the European Championships in Zagreb. Petr Wilfer/Michael Bluhm WEATHER The long, holiday weekend in the Czech lands (July 5 is the anniversary of the arrival of Cyril and Methodius in 863, July 6 is the anniversary of the burning of John Huss at the stake in 1415) saw nearly record high temperatures, while the rest of the week was wet, although the floods of recent years were not repeated. English version edited by Michael Bluhm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with attribution to CAROLINA. 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