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Culture minister rides out flap

Former math teacher takes on thorny church relations issue

By Will Tizard
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
January 31st, 2007 issue

The Czech Republic’s newest minister, Senator Václav Jehlička, has laid out a bold agenda for changes to culture funding, paying little heed to the controversy surrounding his appointment.

A member of the Christian Democratic Party, Jehlička was appointed culture minister Jan. 26 to replace respected documentary maker Helena Třeštíková, who resigned after just 16 days in office, blaming political pressure to accept a deputy minister she did not approve of.
Jehlička, 58, who favors an agreement to formalize the powers of the church in the Czech Republic, has already proven just as contentious — few in government support the agreement, which would likely open the door to talks about returning billions of crowns’ worth of property seized from the church during the pre-1989 communist regime. Most of those assets are administered by the Culture Ministry.
“This is a very sensitive question,” Jehlička said. “The only solution is to try to find some meaningful agreement between all sides.”
Known as the Vatican Agreement, the document, drafted between 1998 and 2000, does not directly address the church property issue but specifies the role of the church in the fields of education, health, military, prisons and social affairs. Despite long-term efforts from the Prague archbishopric, it has yet to be ratified as political parties continue to seek modifications, most in favor of watering it down. Jehlička has told reporters that he favors passing it as first written.
Because legal ownership of churches is still unclear, Jehlička added, much of the property located in towns and villages is badly neglected.
“Many of the towns and villages hang on to this property,” he said, “but they don’t maintain it because they have no interest in it — they know that one day it will revert to the church.”
Jehlička has also said he is considering such moves as merging the two major public broadcasters, Czech Television and Czech Radio, making significant staff changes within the Culture Ministry and conduct an “audit of financial flows.”

Party factor

Jehlička’s most closely watched decision is still awaited, however: whether he will appoint František Formánek to a key post. It was because of pressure to appoint Formánek that Třeštíková resigned, she told reporters. Formánek is said to have brokered the deal that finally put a working government in place after seven months of stalemate following deadlocked June elections.

The outspoken senator, who is the former mayor of Telč, has held office in the Senate since the body was created in 1996. He has chaired the parliamentary commission for education, culture and human rights and oversaw the designation of Telč as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
He has also said he is committed to increasing culture funding from the state budget to the level of 1 percent — a tough challenge in the current deficit-conscious environment.
The Culture Ministry flap caused Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek’s first major embarrassment, following the long road to Cabinet approval.

The stuff of movies

Třeštíková’s resignation has not troubled the culture world as much as could be expected, and some columnists have suggested she was simply not cut out for the horse-trading world of politics. The head of the Audiovisual Producers Association, Pavel Strnad, said, however, “others would just say honest.”

Local filmmakers, who are still awaiting passage of a film funding law, had looked to Třeštíková with hope. Since 1989, state funding for film has all but dried up and a tax on exhibitors, distributors and television stations was debated for eight years before it was scrapped in 2006.
The focus is now on the state coffers again, but the exact form of the film-funding law has been on hold, along with a host of other legislation, during the political stalemate. Třeštíková, who worked on passage of the law before being appointed culture minister, said her departure is not likely to affect the law’s passage.
“The funding law or any other law can’t be based on one single person,” she said. “Negotiation is going to be very difficult under any circumstances.”
The ministry reshuffle “doesn’t indicate anything, really,” said Milan Knížák, director of the National Gallery. “Třeštíková, unfortunately, is not aware of the fact that politics is mainly about discussions and agreements, and to work as a minister means to work under a lot of pressure. Big gestures are for nothing in politics.”
Jehlička seems comfortable with controversy, saying about church property, “There’s no way to find a solution everyone will agree with.”
Before 1989 Jehlička worked as a mathematics and art teacher. He is married, with five children.

Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Will Tizard can be reached at wtizard@praguepost.com


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