(Up to date information on politics and culture in the Czech Republic: Focus on the Czech Republic)
● tough dissidents in November 1989 – controlled revolution
● Havel elected President in Dec. 1989 by the same communist parliament
● impartiality – “need to get involved”
● Havel and squabbles with the Slovaks – 1990 – 1992
● Václav Klaus, Finance Secretary, Thatcherite rhetoric, “normalisation” mentality
● Slovakia: boxer Vladimír Mečiar
● 1992 “opposing election results, break up of Czechoslovakia without a referendum
● voucher privatisation without transparency
● belief in Klaus, rabid anticommunism
● PRE-post-communist period 1989 – 1996(1997)
● Klaus´s ODS reelected in 1996, with reduced majority.
● “Sarajevo coup” autumn 1996
● Freedom Union, intellectual populism
● Elections 1998 – social democrats, Opposition agreement
● June 2002 – social democrats win
● Entry into NATO, entry into the EU
● defensive nationalism
● Right wing media bias – artificial campaigns
● How to deal with the press: Social democratic Prime Ministers: Miloš Zeman, Vladimír Špidla, Stanislav Gross, now “bulldozer” Jiří Paroubek
● economic boom under social democrats
● general disillusionment, slow movement towards the West.
● pre-election period 2006 – shrill hatred
● general election June 2006 – a complete draw (100 – 100 MPs)
● autumn 2006 – several unsuccessful attempts to form a government
● spring 2007 – two social democratic MPs defect to the conservatives, on the very same day the United States applies to the Czech government for the building of its military radar base for its missile defence system on Czech territory
● 70 per cent of the Czech population are against the building of the US radar, the government wanted to go ahead nevertheless
● major reforms of the health service, cutbacks in social services and financial support for the weak; no mandate in parliament for this
● from January until June 2009, Czech Republic held the EU presidency
● but in April 2008, Czech government lost a vote of confidence in Parliament
● Czech right wing government runs an advertising campaign, saying “We will give Europe a taste of its own medicine”, using an ambiguous slogan, thinking that “foreigners” will not get the double meaning
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7599702.stm
● Czech President Klaus fights with euroMPs at Prague castle and records and publishes the contents of the confidential exchanges on the web
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1228514521.89/
http://www.klaus.cz/klaus2/asp/clanek.asp?id=p1PS0KjHXSg7
● the government fell, an early election was to take place in October 2009
● One MP complained that he was elected for four years and the Constitutional Court upheld the decision. No election will take place until the full term of parliament runs out
● In September 2009, US president Obama abandons the missile shield for Central Europe: Czech politicians: “We have been betrayed by the US”
● Zbigniew Brzezinski: The Czechs should stop behaving like small children HERE, an interview on Czech TV(English sound is in one of the channels, Czech translation in the other, for English, unplug one earphone)