CZECH TELEGRAPH

Last Week in News

25. 5. 2010

MY LAND!!!

Hradec Králové's farmer Ludmila Havránková has been keeping the Czech government from completing the D11 highway for 16 years, refusing to give up her property. Now the Czech authorities decided to expropriate her. The D11 stops just 3 kilometers from the important town in Central Bohemia.

In Duka Veritas

After a dispute between the Czech Republic and the Vatican that lasted more than 18 years, President Václav Klaus and the Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka signed an agreement stating that the St Vitus Cathedral will be jointly administrated by the Castle (i.e. by the Czech government) and the Catholic Church. Duka`s predecessor, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, strongly opposed a similar deal and threatened to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. The Catholic Church lost control of the Cathedral in 1954, taken away by the Communist regime.

The Death of a Pop Star

Famous Czech pop singer Petr Muk apparently committed suicide at the age of 45. The singer brought to Czechoslovakia the Depeche Mode and The Cure "new wave" type of music, with the band The Ocean. Later he explored other genres, and was influenced by an interest in judaism and spiritualism, ending up the past couple of years in the commercial musical theatre arena. Just last week he had released a new album and was scheduled to go on tour, but after years of drug abuse and a fight against bipolar disorder, he was found unconscious in his Prague apartment, dead from an overdose of unidentified pills.

Social Democrats Leading Last Poll

A new poll about the upcoming elections, done by the Factum Invenio agency, shows the Social Democrats (ČSSD) ahead of the Civic Democrats (ODS) by a margin of less than 4 points. ČSSD would get 26.3 percent of the vote, while ODS would receive 22.9 percent of the electorate. Communists (13.1), the centrist Public Affairs (12.6), the right-wing TOP 09 (10.9), and the Christian Democrats (5.5 percent). Under Czech law, no new polls results will be released so as to prevent the influencing of voters in the final run-up to the election.

Caretaker Premier Will Vote Center Right

Czech interim government Prime Minister Jan Fischer allowed to transpire that he will vote for one of the centre-right parties in the upcoming elections this weekend. In a Czech public television Sunday show, the popular stastician-turned-premier said that he preferred practical and polite politics that will not entail throwing around money and that directs social expenditures where they are truly needed.

The Cost of Not Voting

Data from the Ministry of Finance shows that last year's cancelled parliamentary elections cost the Czech coffers 114.5 million crowns. This year's elections to parliament are expected to cost a record one billion crowns.

New Orchestra Director

Oliver Dohnányi, an internationally respected conductor who was born in Slovakia and headed the Czech National Theatre Orchestra until 2007 will be named the new director of the Prague State Opera when Jaroslav Vocel ends his mandate at the end of June.

Czech Xenophobia

The Czech Helsinki Committee says that extremism and xenophobia continued to rise and the rights of the children of Roma (their access to education and healthcare), foreign workers and families of prisoners remained limited in the Czech Republic in 2009. It also pointed to the lack of social housing and free legal aid to the poor.

Red Headquarters

Citing the Czech Communist party's failure to distance itself from the crimes of the previous regime, an opposing group covered the headquarters of the party in Prague with red paint. It was the second time they did this as a form of protest and to bring media attention.

Hate Fine

Far-right Workers' Party leader Tomáš Vandas received a suspended sentence and a fine of 25,000 crowns for committing acts of hate speech at a May 1 gathering in Brno in 2009. Vandas, whose party was banned by the Czech Constitutional Court in February, is the election leader of the supposedly new Workers' Party for Social Justice.

New Czech Philharmonic Director

The former general director of Czech Radio, recently fired, Václav Kasík, has been named to the post of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra director by Minister of Culture Václav Riedlbauch, replacing Vladimír Darjanin, who was controversially removed from the office after less than a year due to allegations of poor management of the Philharmonic's budget, generating protests from employees against his removal. It is likely, though, that when a new minister of culture takes office after the general elections, Kasík will be replaced.

Vytisknout