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Current AffairsPublic Affairs told to accept restitution deal or leave government
Cracks in the three-party governing coalition appeared again this week, as
the junior Public Affairs party resisted approval of a church property
restitution deal. For the senior Civic Democratic and TOP 09 parties, the
deal is a major achievement that has been years in the making. When Public
Affairs, which questions aspects of the agreement, attempted to put
conditions on its support, the response was clear: approve the deal or
leave the government. More
SpecialA tale of two brothers, and the building of a nation
For the occasion of September 28, I’m here at a place that some people
actually call the real centre of the Czech Republic. Not the geographic
centre to be sure, but certainly the focal point for much of the Czech
Republic’s rocky modern-day history. It’s a statue of a man on a horse
(which people call ‘the horse’ when they arrange one of the hundreds of
meetings that take place here each day). But it’s of course the man on
the horse that has overseen everything over the last hundred years from the
declaration of Czechoslovak independence to the various political
demonstrations that gravitate here today. Above me is of course Saint
Václav, or Wenceslas, from which the surrounding square takes its name,
and his likeness has adorned this place for at least three hundred years,
in different incarnations. Legend has it that when worse comes to worst for
the Czech lands he will come un-petrified, and ride away to quash their
enemies – a disconcerting prophesy when one considers the parades of
Nazis and Communists that the statue saw come and go. But even in that,
there is a good point to be made: this symbol of Czech statehood is
indomitable; the legacy of St. Václav rides on through the ages, now for
about the 1,076th year. More
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