"Starého psa novým kouskům nenaučíš" goes the saying. But the freshly re-elected right-wing nationalistic populist Václav Klaus isn't particularly interested in anything new: “I will fight to retain the Czech koruna for as long as it is advantageous for Czechs,” he boasted.  read more »

YouTube is a great source of video to illustrate historical events and the Velvet Revolution is no exception. Here are a few clips.

Montage of moments from the days of and after 17 November:  read more »

Czech Unconvinced About Their Politicians: Angus Reid Global Monitor
Many adults in the Czech Republic are disappointed with their current public servants, according to a poll by STEM. 72 per cent of respondents believe today’s politicians are not more honest than those from the communist era.

Of course, in most countries people don't have particularly high expectations of politicians' honesty. It might be dispiriting, though, that Czechs don't think theirs are any better now than when they were representing a totalitarian regime. But, on the other hand, there's a good chance that public representatives then were no more mendacious and self-serving as people and dismissive of their electorate then they are likely to be anywhere. Only, they were operating in a totalitarian context.  read more »

Czech clerks take bribes from big firms -politicians, managers
Prague- Clerks at Czech ministries and other central state offices take bribes most frequently, and primarily large Czech companies corrupt them, politicians and managers said in a poll released today.

...

Politicians and businesspeople said in the poll that in their opinion corruption in the Czech Republic has not increased since 2001. According to them, the situation is slightly worse in Prague over a higher concentration of state offices in the capital.  read more »

Czech president says EU membership brought little to Czech Republic, Slovakia - International Herald Tribune
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia: Czech President Václav Klaus said Thursday he believes that the accession of his country and neighboring Slovakia to the European Union has brought little benefits to the two countries.

Not surprising given the strong Thatcherite leanings combined with increasingly strident nationalistic populism of the president (biased view of mine). He is also, tr  read more »

„Estébák“ musí vrátit medaili, rozhodla Akademie - iDNES.cz
Akademie věd vymazala jméno teologa Františka Jindřicha Holečka ze seznamu osobností, které získaly medaili profesora Jana Patočky.

Even though Charter 77 commands much less respect today than it did 15 years ago, some subjects are still sore. A theologian F. J. Holeček was asked today to return a medal awarded to him 2000 for achievements in theology and the study of Jan Hus. Unfortunately, it appears (the facts are as usual a little fuzzy) that he cooperated with StB (Státní bezpečnost - State police) in the early 1980s. And given that the award bears the name of Jan Patočka (a philosopher, the first signatory of the Charter, and the first victim of the subsequent prosecution) Holeček was asked to return it. This is still a sore subject for many Czechs and although revelations of somebody's communist past are not as common as they were not long ago, they still crop up at least once every few months.  read more »

Czech Hussites rocked by sexual scandal - press
"New patriarch Tomas Butta, Bishop Stepan Klasek, Petr Sandera and I have asked Bican to consider his resignation," Bishop Jana Šilerová from Olomouc, North Moravia, told the paper. ... MfD writes that the Hussite church is the third most populous church in the Czech Republic and now it is celebrating 87 years since its establishment.

What can we learn form this story? Gay priests having affairs? Nothing new or surprising here. However, a female bishop? Certainly a point of interest. The Czechoslovak Hussite Church not only allows women priests, they number almost half of the total 300 clergy. It should also be noted that the most populous church by far is the Catholic from which the Hussites split during the early years of the Czech Republic over ordination of women and other issues. The Hussites are not really a protestant denomination of the Lutheran tradition (they're closer to Anglicans) and having Jan Hus in their title is more a matter of national pride than ideology. They're one of the more tolerant churches out there but they were also one of the more willing to do the communist regime's bidding (although that has to be taken in the context of its time).  read more »

Czech press survey Prague- Not much has be left of the Charter 77 human rights movement that was launched 30 years ago, Bob Fliedr writes in Lidove noviny today, and adds that only few signatories have succeeded in politics.

The group, headed by later president Vaclav Havel, who took over power in late 1989, has practically disappeared from public life, he says.

The few Charter signatories who have succeeded in politics. "were not much good in team work in managing public affairs, the less so in the power struggle," Fliedr writes.  read more »

Every third Czech has been crime victim - survey - Prague Daily Monitor
Prague, Jan 1 (CTK) - Every third adult Czech has ever become victim of a crime in his/her life, which is about three million people, experts from the Criminology and Social Prevention Institute have told CTK referring to victimology surveys.

The situation is roughly on European as well as U.S. level, Martin Cejp, from the institute said.

I was about to point out how lucky I was not to have been among the 33 percent of crime victims when I realized that I have had my apartment burgled in the late 1990s when I still lived in Prague. But overall I have to agree with the following statement:  read more »

Ve zdravotnictví nás možná čeká velký „třesk“ - iDNES.cz
Další velkou změnou je zavedení poplatků za recept či za návštěvu lékaře. Má to logiku: podle statistik Češi chodí k lékaři v průměru patnáctkrát ročně. Což je dvojnásobek průměru Evropské unie.

The new government is looking to introduce some healthcare system reforms to reduce the frequent visits Czechs make to consult their doctors which they do on average 15 times. This is 2 times the EU average.  read more »

Klaus fears Schwarzenberg would not defend Czech interests -press
The foreign minister must "defend the interests of the Czech Republic clearly, sharply and out of his own conviction," Klaus writes.

He says that Schwarzenberg is linked with the Czech Republic only by a smaller part of his life and property, and that he has come in contact with the normal life of Czech people only marginally.

This is a good example of some of the national prejudices that the president is exploiting here (no different, though, from the recent concerns in the US about Senators swearing on the Quoran).  read more »

Čunek se v popularitě dere nahoru - www.lidovky.cz
Nejoblíbenější političkou v zemi je i nadále šéfka lidoveckých poslanců Vlasta Parkanová.

Despite the rather mixed news about the role of women in Czech politics that came out as a result of the recent elections, the most popular politician (parlamentarian) in the country is the leader of Christian Democrats' parliamentary club Vlasta Parkanová. She is not the first popular female politician either. Before her, the Social  read more »

Too few women in Czech politics - poll
Prague- Almost three-quarters of Czechs are of the view that women's representation in politics is insufficient, according to a poll conducted by the polling agency CVVM for the civic group Forum 50%% in November and released today.

There are many stories about the gender divide in Czech politics (see this category) but what is encouraging is that so many Czechs are aware of it. We'll see if this awareness translates into action and action into results (it did  read more »

Mlátit ženy je mezi českými muži rozšířené hobby

Poslanecká sněmovna parlamentu se zapojuje – protože musí, neboť její pánské vedení by to asi dobrovolně ani nenapadlo – do evropské kampaně proti násilí na ženách. Nezdá se to, ale Česká republika je, ač malá, přesto, co do násilí na ženách, výrazná. Zatímco evropský průměr, uváděný v materiálech Rady Evropy, je 12-15 procent žen, které se s násilím setkají, podle posledního průzkumu z roku 2003 (protože později již patrně nikomu nestálo za to jej dělat), se s násilím vůči sobě setkalo 38 procent českých žen.  read more »

The Prague Post Online: News: Czech Republic to join Schengen
The Czech Republic will enter the Schengen border-free zone a year from now, following the European Commission's (EC) recent reversal of its earlier decision to postpone entry for new European Union members until well into 2008.

"This means that Europe will soon no longer be divided into two parts," Interior Minister Ivan Langer told reporters Dec. 5.

This issue was felt very keenly by many Czechs who felt like "second-class" citizens.  read more »

Foreigners to make up for lacking Czech medical staff - minister
Prague- The Health Ministry is considering inviting foreigners, from new EU countries for instance, to fill vacancies in the Czech Republic's health sector that lacks mainly anaesthesiologists and rescuers, Minister Tomas Julinek (Civic Democrats, ODS) has told Czech Radio.

It will be interesting to see how Czech not used to people from other cultures will react to this. But it will be an important first step to opening the Czech culture.  read more »

MF DNES
VÍCE ŽEN V POLITICE Po komunálních volbách přibylo žen ve vedení hlavního města a také čtyři městské části zvolily političky do svého čela. Podle odborníků je to pořád málo. Jenže strany stále nechtějí ženy umisťovat na přední místa kandidátek.

Praha - Pověst o mytické kněžně Libuši vypráví o tom, kterak moudrá žena raději ustoupila velmožům a vládu nad Vyšehradem přenechala svému muži.

Pohled do lavic nového zastupitelstva Prahy napovídá, že velkou službu svým následovnicím neprokázala. Stereotyp, že na správu věcí veřejných má pravé know-how jedině muž, přežil celá staletí - mezi 70 zastupiteli je pouze 14 žen a v jedenáctičlenné radě zasedají všehovšudy tři ženy.  read more »

People's Daily Online -- Civic Democratic Party wins victory in Czech Senate election
The Czech Republic's Civic Democratic Party (ODS) has won a crushing victory in the second round of Senate election, according to the results published by the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) on Saturday.

The ODS has won 14 seats in Senate runoff elections, gaining a simple majority in the chamber, according to the CSU.

The ODS has a total of 41 senators in the 81-seat Senate.

Twenty-seven seats in the parliament's upper chamber were to be filled in the weekend runoff, with the top two finishers from last week's first round facing off for each seat in a two-day ballot.  read more »

Poll: Women under-represented in Czech politics - Prague Daily Monitor Prague, Sept 5 (CTK) - More than two-thirds of Czechs believe that women are under-represented in politics and senior posts in the civil service in the Czech Republic, according to a new poll.Some 85 percent of the respondents said that it was good to have women in these functions. 

That is certainly a good sign. From a feminist point of view, though, it is very often accompanied by a belief that we need more women in politics because they being gentility and feminine charm into it. But ultimately no matter what the reason, more women in politics are inevitable. The numbers below are not sustainable in the long run:  read more »

Gay Czechs say 'I do'
The first same sex marriages in Central Europe took place at registry offices across the Czech Republic on Saturday, as gay couples seized the opportunity to take advantage of a long fought for change in the law.

The very first Czech gay marriage was between cook, Pepa, and railway worker, Karel, in the registry offices of the eastern city of Ostrava.

Good for them.

Czechs face prolonged post-election deadlock | Reuters.com
Czech voters face weeks of political uncertainty or even fresh elections after delivering a deadlock between centre-right and leftist parties in weekend general elections.

Full preliminary results showed the opposition Civic Democrats won the biggest share of the popular vote but not a majority in the first elections since the ex-communist nation joined the European Union two years ago.  read more »

Czech politicians come to blows two weeks ahead of parliamentary elections - 22-05-2006 - Radio Prague

It was a resounding slap that reverberated for hours after it had been dealt. At a meeting of Czech dentists on Saturday Miroslav Macek, a former deputy prime minister in the 1990s and long time adviser to President Vaclav Klaus, walked over to Health Minister David Rath and without warning hit him on the back of the head, starting a fistfight. Macek claims he was settling a personal score with the minister because of insulting remarks he'd made about his wife, but the nature of the attack - at the start of a conference with TV cameras rolling - suggested otherwise. The incident came less than a fortnight before parliamentary elections in the midst of what commentators have described as the most aggressive election campaign in the country's modern history.  read more »