Stable uncertainty probably best sums up the situation in the Czech Republic in 2006.

For more than half the year, the country operated without a functioning government. A general election in June showed just how polarized Czech society is right now: It resulted in a 200-member Chamber of Deputies split down the middle between the left and the right.

Sure, the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) technically won the election, but the breakdown in Parliament made it virtually impossible for Chairman Mirek Topolánek to gain the required support for a coalition government.

In the months leading up to the election, the ODS and the then-ruling Social Democrats (ČSSD) launched what analysts called the most aggressive campaign ever seen in this country.

From healthcare reform, to pension reform, to a promised overhaul in the financing of the education system, the word on the right of the political spectrum was change, with ODS supporters eagerly anticipating an end to the eight-year-long rule by the left-leaning ČSSD.

The ČSSD, meanwhile, pinned its hopes on bombastic Prime Minister and party Chairman Jiří Paroubek, who had helped revive support for the party since coming into power in the April of 2005.

The bitter back-and-forth between the two parties alienated some voters, and smaller political parties, notably the Green Party (SZ), benefited.

The SZ managed to win Parliament seats for the first time in history.

But even new blood on the political scene, as the SZ members labeled themselves, could do little to end the post-election tug of war between Paroubek and Topolánek, as the former effectively blocked all of the latter's attempts to cobble together a coalition with the SZ and the Christian Democratic Union.

It wouldn't be until August that Paroubek finally resigned as prime minister and Topolánek, backed by a shaky government with no mandate, became the country's first right-leaning leader in eight years.

But, while politics dominated the country's headlines in 2006, other stories competed for attention.

At the beginning of the year, a bitter cold snap sent Prague scurrying to find temporary shelters for hundreds of its homeless citizens. Winter thawed to spring, and so sent floodwaters to many low-lying areas of the country, including the capital, which experienced its worst flooding since 2002.

The country's healthcare system remained bogged down in controversy and infighting.

Gays got the right to form partnerships. The idea of a U.S. missile base in the Czech Republic drew protests from citizens and politicians alike.

Former President Václav Havel turned 70.