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 ISSN 121-5040 tel: (+4202) 22112252, fax: (+4202) 22112219 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 384, Friday, July 28, 2000. FROM THE EVENTS OF THE PAST TWO WEEKS (JULY 12-26) Havel files complaint with Constitutional Court on Electoral Act Czech President Vaclav Havel signed a complaint for the Constitutional Court concerning the recently passed Electoral Act July 15. Havel, whose veto was overridden by the Chamber of Deputies, has long criticized the controversial act. He wants the Court to determine whether the act corresponds with the proportional electoral system for the Chamber of Deputies given by the Constitution. A Constitutional Court decision would be the only way to stop the act from taking effect. Havel said he does not agree with increasing the number of electoral districts from eight to 35, with raising the minimum required for coalitions to enter the Chamber from 7 per cent of the vote to seven to 10 per cent for two-party coalitions, 15 per cent for three-party coalitions, etc. Havel said he also opposes the D'Hondt method for calculating percentages of the vote. The change to the Electoral Act is the brainchild of the two major parties - the Social Democrats (CSSD) and the Civic Democrats (ODS, see Carolina 382 and 383) and the most powerful parties would be helped by the changes, according to its critics. Also, senators from the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) want to file their own complaint to the Constitutional Court. Lida Truneckova/Ondrej Maly Deputies Do Not Accept Government Report The Chamber of Deputies July 14 did not accept the report submitted by the government on the fulfillment of its program declaration. The minority government's report was accepted on the first vote, but the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) asked for a new vote, and with 14 deputies missing from the ruling Social Democrats (CSSD) the report fell one vote shy of being accepted. Prime Minister Milos Zeman said he was nevertheless satisfied with the result of voting and said the vote was progress from last year, when the Chamber of Deputies passed a resolution saying the government was not benefiting the country. According to the government report, foreign investments are on the rise, as are GDP and real income. Inflation is falling and the unemployment rate is stable. Opponents say the government has had no part in revitalizing the economy and connect the positive indicators with worldwide growth. Lida Truneckova/Ondrej Maly NEWS IN BRIEF * The loading of fuel into the first reactor of the Temelin nuclear power plant (see Carolina 383) was completed July 14 and according to inspectors (the International Atomic-Energy Agency was present) complied with regulations. Three days later Chamber of Deputies Chairman Vaclav Klaus visited the site and praised its technological quality. Temelin should begin providing power in the fall. * The government approved a National Battle Plan against the Commercial Sexual Abuse of Children July 12. Measures proposed include amending the criminal code's paragraphs on distribution of child pornography, rape and white slavery, while healthcare workers would be required to report cases of child sexual abuse. The problem should also be covered in sexual education programs in schools. The media has also dealt with the issue, giving particular coverage to foreigners coming here for child prostitutes. * The Prague-Dresden D8 highway will go through the nature reserve of the Central Bohemian Highlands (Ceske stredohori). The Environment Ministry granted an exception for the construction of the 16km section between Lovosice and Usti nad Labem, ending a five-year conflict. Minister Milos Kuzvart announced the exception July 20. The ecological organization Children of the Earth has announced it will appeal the decision. * The Czech Republic officially had 10,273,000 residents at the end of March. The number has decreased by about 10,000 residents annually since 1994. A declining birth rate is to blame ,with last year being the first in which less than 90,000 babies were born here. * Jaroslav Basta, until March the Social Democrats' Minister without Portfolio, will become the Czech Republic's ambassador to Moscow. The Czech Embassy in Moscow has been leaderless since the beginning of the year, when former Defense Minister Lubos Dobrovsky resigned. Lida Truneckova/Michael Bluhm FOREIGN AFFAIRS Forced Laborer Compensation Moves Forward The Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, the USA, Israel, the Jewish Claims Conference and victims' lawyers July 17 signed in Berlin a political declaration welcoming the establishment of a fund to compensate WWII forced laborers in Nazi Germany. The German government and private firms will contribute 10 billion deutschmarks to the fund, and compensation will be paid out gradually. There are between 60,000 and 70,000 Czech citizens who were forced laborers, and they should receive about 423 million deutschmarks. Lida Truneckova/Michael Bluhm Foreign Minister Jan Kavan Visits Middle East Foreign Minister Jan Kavan met with his Israeli counterpart David Levy and officially opened the Czech Republic's consulate in Ramallah (which could become part of a Palestine state) during his five-day visit from July 13-17. Kavan's planned meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were cancelled because of the summit at Camp David. The Czech Republic has traditionally had good relations with the region: it was the first former Soviet satellite to establish a diplomatic mission and remains the only former satellite providing foreign assistance (e.g., 3 million USD for installing electricity). The former Czechoslovakia sold airplanes to Israel in 1948. Lida Truneckova/Michael Bluhm FROM SLOVAKIA Former SIS Chief Lexa Hiding from Criminal Prosecution Abroad Former Director of the Slovak Information Service (SIS, the nation's civilian intelligence agency) Ivan Lexa is hiding in the Caribbean to avoid criminal prosecution in Slovakia. Lexa has been outside Slovakia since September, according to documents gained by Markiza Television. Lexa applied for citizenship on Grenada, pledged allegiance to the English queen and submitted entrepreneurial capital of 200,000 USD. His plans for doing business in travel fell apart when Grenada refused to grant him citizenship. An international warrant cannot be issued for Lexa because he still benefits from official immunity as a legislator in the Slovak National Assembly. Assembly Chairman Jozef Migas has initiated the calling of a special session to strip Lexa of immunity. Blame for Lexa's flight has been cast on the Interior Ministry and the Justice Ministry. Slovak Telecommunications Sale Is Biggest Privatization Deal The Slovak government July 12 agreed on the sale of 51 percent of Slovak Telecommunications to Deutsche Telekom for 1 million euro, the largest privatization yet in Slovakia. Deutsche Telekom, the largest telecommunications provider in Europe, will invest 400 million euro of that total back into Slovak Telecommunications, while the government has said the remainder will be used for development projects, bailing out the Postal Bank (Postovni banka) and for healthcare subsidies. Deutsche Telekom will take over the company by the end of July. This section was written by Andrea Slovakova/Michael Bluhm ECONOMY New Czech National Bank Act Limits Independence The main goal of the Czech National Bank (CNB) should no longer be currency, but rather price stability, according to amendments to the Czech National Bank Act passed by the Chamber of Deputies July 14. The changes also require the bank consult with the government on bank inflation targets and currency policy. The bank's governor would be proposed to the president by the government, whereas no the president names the governor of his own choosing. The formerly secret salary of the governor will now be equal to that of the prime minister (114,600 crowns per month), and the salaries of members of the Banking Council would be equal to the salaries of ministers (75,100 crowns per month). The bank's business and investment budgets would be approved by the Chamber of Deputies, while the bank's regular budget would be under the control of the Supreme Audit Office (Nejvyssi kontrolni urad). The changes were supported by the Social Democrats (CSSD) and the Civic Democrats (ODS), while the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Freedom Union (US) were against. The Communists (KSCM) abstained. The amendments will be challenged in the Senate, with Finance Minister Pavel Mertlik saying the changes go against the Constitution, which sets the bank's main goal as currency stability. Lida Truneckova/Michael Bluhm Report: Debts to Related Companies Sent IPB into Forced Administration The Investment and Postal Bank (Investicni a postovni banka, IPB) was placed under forced administration because of debts owed by companies often owned by the bank or related to it, according to a report issued by the Czech National Bank's oversight department. The bank's biggest debtors are construction firm Vojenske stavby and the firms owning TV Prima, which the bank controls, the related firms Cetus and Nomura Capital and former bank shareholder Charouz Holding. Half of IPB's 185-billion crown loan portfolio is bad, said Josef Tauber, the vice chairman of the board of the Czechoslovak Trade Bank (Ceskoslovenska obchodni banka, CSOB) who is now running IPB. CSOB bought IPB in forced administration June 19 (see Carolina 381, 383) and can transfer the bad loans to the state-owned Consolidation Bank. Mirka Stipkova/Michael Bluhm Exchange Rates at the Czech National Bank (valid July 27) ---------------------------------------------------------- 1 EUR = 35.660 country currency CZK ---------------------------------------- Australia 1 AUD 22.400 Great Britain 1 GBP 57.576 Denmark 1 DKK 4.784 Japan 100 JPY 34.772 Canada 1 CAD 25.827 IMF 1 XDR 50.113 Hungary 100 HUF 13.707 Norway 1 NOK 4.354 New Zealand 1 NZD 17.499 Poland 1 PLN 8.827 Greece 100 GRD 10.575 Slovakia 100 SKK 83.924 Slovenia 100 SIT 17.170 Sweden 1 SEK 4.245 Switzerland 1 CHF 22.978 USA 1 USD 37.898 Exchange Rates of countries paticipating in the euro (converted from the euro rate) Germany 1 DEM 18.233 Belgium 100 BEF 88.399 Finland 1 FIM 5.998 France 1 FRF 5.436 Ireland 1 IEP 45.279 Italy 1000 ITL 18.417 Luxemburg 100 LUF 88.399 Netherlands 1 NLG 16.182 Portugal 100 PTE 17.787 Austria 1 ATS 2.592 Spain 100 ESP 21.432 CULTURE 35th Karlovy Vary Film Festival Breaks Records The 35th Karlovy Vary film Festival, which ran July 5-15 in the western Bohemia spa town, set records for films screened, tickets sold and registered guests. More than 140,000 tickets were sold for more than 260 films, while 9,000 film professionals, journalists and festivalgoers were registered for the rainy and unseasonably cold 11 days at Europe's second-oldest film festival. The competition section's main prize was won by the Brazilian film Me, You, Them from director Andrucha Waddington, who accepted the prize from Spanish director Carlos Saura, also the recipient of a prize for lifetime achievement. The competition jury was chaired by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, the creator of The Taste of Cherries and The Wind Will Carry Us, the latter of which had its Czech premiere at the festival. Other films of note making their Czech premiere at the festival included Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog, Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, Alan Parker's Angela's Ashes (hich won the viewers' award), Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Angels of the Universe, Chris Smith's American Movie, Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy and the Hughes Brothers' American Pimp. Aside from the competition sections for feature and documentary films, other sections focused on independent films, films from the former Soviet Bloc, films from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Variety magazine's critics' choice and award-winning films from other recent festivals. This year's festival featured neither a spontaneous poetry slam nor Czech director Jiri Menzel (Closely Watched Trains, the 1968 Academy Award-winner for best foreign-language film) physically assaulting a festival official, as happened last year - perhaps the unremittingly gloomy weather kept everyone's emotions in check - but the festival's unofficial mascots, the countless domestic student backpackers, stayed on, each night unfurling their sleeping bags on the concert stage next to the festival center. Foreign guests attending the festival included Woody Harrelson (frequent festival guest and narrator of the marijuana documentary Grass), Ed Norton (showing his film Keeping the Faith) and Alicia Silverstone. Festival organizers say their main priority for next year will be arranging for more theaters, while a proposal for a museum dedicated to film and the festival, the second-oldest in Europe, started gaining support. Michael Bluhm/Michael Bluhm SPORTS Government Promises Support for 2003 Hockey World Championships Prime Minister Milos Zeman July 18 promised government support in organizing the 2003 World Championships in hockey in Prague. The government will name a special envoy (its third, with the first two for human rights and the IMF-World Bank Prague summit in September) to choose an investor for and manage the construction of the arena for the championships. The state, which will not contribute financially to the building of the stadium, will help with securing the land where the stadium should be built. David Luksu/Michael Bluhm SPORTS IN BRIEF * The Czech women's junior basketball team won the silver medal at the European Championships in Poland, losing to Russia in the final 51:64. * The Czech under-18 soccer team lost the bronze-medal game to Germany 1:3 at the European Championships in Germany after leading 1:0 at halftime. * The Czech softball team was the only European team to advance to the quarterfinals at the World Championships in South Africa. The Czech team, also the reigning European champs, finished sixth. David Luksu/Michael Bluhm WEATHER In a word, miserable. In other words, gloomy, cloudy, wet, one of the coldest Julys on record and nothing like summer. English version edited by Michael Bluhm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with attribution to CAROLINA. Subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. 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