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Current AffairsPrime Minister Petr Nečas to meet US President Barack Obama
Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas is on a brief working visit to the United
States where he will be meeting with US President Barack Obama later on
Thursday. The agenda of Mr Nečas’ first visit to the Oval Office will be
dominated by the multi-billion tender to expand the Czech Temelín nuclear
power plant, in which the US firm Westinghouse is one of the bidders. More
From the ArchivesCzechoslovakia in 1991: What to do with former secret police collaborators?
One of the most passionate debates in Czechoslovakia in the first years
after the fall of communism was over what to do with people who had
collaborated with the secret police – the StB – or had held prominent
functions in the Communist Party. In 1991 the so-called “screening law”
was passed, under which former StB collaborators were prevented from
holding certain senior posts – for example in academia or in the civil
service. At the time Radio Prague invited two Czech politicians into the
studio: the left-of-centre member of the Federal Parliament, Jan Kavan, and
the leader of the small right-wing Conservative Party, Jiří Kotas. Here
is an extract from the debate, starting with Jiří Kotas, who was strongly
in favour of the law:
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Current AffairsFormer Chief of General Staff says government needs to speed up preparation for new tender on fighter planes
The Czech Republic has five years left on its lease of 14 Gripen fighter
jets from the British-Swedish consortium BAE Systems-SAAB, but already, say
some observers, the government should be thinking about next steps: a
tender preparing the ground for the Czech Republic to either buy the
existing planes or to opt for new fighter jets.
More
From the ArchivesAfter Palach: fears and hopes
In last week’s From the Archives we followed the tragic last days of the
student Jan Palach, who on January 16 1969 set himself alight in protest
against growing apathy in the face of the Soviet invasion five months
earlier. The whole country was in shock. Such a drastic and violent
sacrifice had little precedent in modern Czech and Slovak history, and
perhaps for just that reason Palach immediately became a symbol of the
country’s lost liberty and a rallying cry for those who still hoped to
save something of the reforms of 1968. Those in power had to be cautious;
they were well aware that Palach’s legacy could be explosive.
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