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One on OneVít Klepárník of new think tank CESTA: left should no longer be a dirty word
A group of Czech intellectuals including political analyst Jiří Pehe,
sociologists Jan Keller and Tereza Stöckelová, and others, felt that ever
since the fall of communism, political discourse in the country has been
dominated by a right-wing agenda, articulated by a number of liberal and
conservative institutes. To provide alternatives and to oppose these views
from a left-wing wing perspective, these intellectuals established in
January a new political think-tank called Cesta, or Path. In this edition
of One on One, RP spoke to one of Cesta’s founders, political analyst
Vít Klepárník. More
One on OneVáclav Havel’s decency gave him courage, says his former advisor Jiří Pehe
People in the Czech Republic and around the world hail the late
ex-president Václav Havel as a great European, a humanist and a man who
stood up to the communist regime, a decent and courageous man who led his
country to democracy. In this special edition of One on One, we talk to
political commentator Jiří Pehe who served as Václav Havel’s chief
political advisor in the late 1990s. More
Current AffairsCzech Republic withholds final decision on eurozone
More than 10 hours of negotiations in Brussels, lasting well into the early
hours of Friday morning, were not enough to produce agreement by all 27 EU
member states to back key changes to the EU treaty in the face of the
eurozone debt crisis. More
Current AffairsPrague mayor wins in-party showdown to form new coalition
A dramatic week at Prague City Hall seems to be drawing to a close and the
Czech capital will be under new management. The city’s grand coalition of
the rival Civic and Social Democrats ended abruptly on Monday night, and on
Thursday morning a new ruling coalition was announced just as swiftly. The
TOP 09 party, which actually won the election to City Hall last fall but
has been in opposition ever since, will now have a majority on the council,
while the Civic Democrats and Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda will keep the top
position. Likely no one was more surprised at the outcome of this situation
than the chairman of the Civic Democratic Party’s Prague chapter, Boris
Šťastný – the man who caused the breakup of the original coalition and
who was sidestepped on the decision, which Mayor Svoboda and his supporters
arranged with TOP 09 on their own. While political commentators have
themselves been struggling to keep up with events at City Hall this week,
Jiří Pehe of New York University told us how he interprets the situation. More
Current AffairsCzech euro adoption retreats further into distance
The media coverage surrounding the problems in the eurozone has - rightly
– focused on the seventeen countries that use it, as they attempt to
shore up efforts to stop the sovereign debt crisis from spreading. But what
of the ten that don’t, and especially those new members like the Czech
Republic, which must – at some point - adopt the euro under the terms of
their EU membership? More
Current AffairsConservative figure Bátora quits Education Ministry post
Controversial activist Ladislav Bátora has announced he is leaving his
post at the Education Ministry. Earlier this year, his stint at the
ministry became a source of upheaval on the Czech political scene but Mr
Bátora was allowed to remain at the ministry in return for a promise he
would stay away from politics. But on Friday, Ladislav Bátora said he was
no longer willing to keep that promise and wanted to be actively engaged in
public life. Commentator Jiří Pehe thinks he is leaving after his goal
– getting public attention – was fulfilled. More
Current AffairsVáclav Havel turns 75
Former Czech president and playwright Václav Havel on Wednesday turns 75.
Hundreds of people from the Czech Republic and abroad have sent well-wishes
to the man who has become a symbol of his nation’s yearning for freedom
and democracy and whose life story astonished the world. Now, eight years
after leaving office, Mr Havel is gradually turning into a legend in his
own country as well. More
Current AffairsDirect presidential election passes lower house
A government proposal seeking direct, popular election of the Czech
president made it through the lower house of Parliament on Tuesday – a
significant success for an idea that lawmakers have dealt with eight times
already. Nevertheless, while the coalition and the opposition may have
reached a rare consensus for the time being, any such change to the
constitution remains fraught by the fact that each party envisions very
different conditions for popular elections, and many pundits and political
scientists see the popular issue as a non-starter. Professor Jiří Pehe of
New York University, for one, tells me the prospect of direct presidential
elections is science fiction. I asked him why. More
Current AffairsAnalyst: “Bátora affair” just pretext for government crisis
Ministers from the TOP 09 party made good on their promise on Wednesday and
boycotted a cabinet meeting in protest of the continued presence of the
controversial, highly-placed civil servant Ladislav Bátora at the
Education Ministry. The party has slammed the official for past ties to the
extremist National Party and for insults recently aimed at its leader,
Karel Schwarzenberg, indicating things won’t return to normal until Mr
Bátora is replaced. Some, however, argue that Mr Bátora is not the real
issue at all, and that the scandal is being exploited by TOP 09 for its own
political ends. More
Current AffairsConflict over ultra-conservative civil servant shakes Czech coalition government
The Czech centre-right government faces another imbroglio. Ministers for
the coalition TOP 09 party walked out of Wednesday’s government meeting
over offensive comments about their chair, Foreign Minister Karel
Schwarzenberg, made by the ultra-conservative Education Ministry HR chief,
Ladislav Bátora. The TOP ministers now say they won’t come back until Mr
Bátora is fired, or his boss, Education Minister Josef Dobeš, quits. More
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