Will this year be better than the last? Will this year be the best ever?

We cannot answer these questions now. It's all unknown, a mystery, one that will unravel more with each passing month, driven in no small part by chance and (if you believe in it) fate, but most of all by our actions. What we do.

This newspaper looks ahead to 2007 in the Czech Republic with that same giddying sense of the possible, the same feeling we had one year ago. Of course, how disappointed we were all to become.

It would be difficult to overstate just how little the Czech government accomplished in 2006. More than half the year went by without anyone to lead the country. A bitterly contested June general election delivered a split Chamber of Deputies, and any predisposition that lawmakers had toward legislating quickly vanished as political parties — notably the Social Democrats and the Civic Democrats — bickered, pointed fingers, lobbed accusations, uttered bombast and pretty much did everything except compromise for the good of the country.

That was the second half of 2006. The first half? Well, it was much the same as an extended election campaign stretched over months and proved to be the most heated this country has ever seen.

We grew tired of the same (non)headlines day after day, which party said what, which politician did what. And we grew concerned: The Czech Republic was increasingly cited in international news articles for its instability, always near the top of stories that dealt with the political and economic woes of many of the newest members of the European Union.

And yet, through 2006's haze of inaction, some things did shine. Gays could finally form registered partnerships, after a forward-looking law went on the books in July. The government managed to pass tough new driving regulations that were coolly received, but no doubt saved lives. Police increasingly targeted corruption, and there were several high-profile arrests of people in lofty places.

Which leads this newspaper to wonder: If such a divisive year can still yield fruit, what might the months ahead bring?

Already we are encouraged. As detailed in these pages this week, lawmakers started the month by implementing a tough new measure against the perpetrators of domestic violence and a new law meant to boost the country's disabled toward greater independence.

We hope this momentum rolls into equally important reforms in the country's healthcare and education systems, its Criminal and Commercial codes and the subsidies it pays out to military veterans, to name a few of the dozen issues in various stages of debate in the Chamber as the new year starts.

For this to happen, the government gridlock that has gone on for far too long in this country must come to an end. It became painfully obvious to us a few months ago that it would not — in 2006, at least. We became resigned.