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2007: Year in review

The biggest stories of the past 12 months involved racist violence, political scandals and moments of hope

January 3rd, 2008 issue

FAR FROM HOME

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
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František Žiga is one of the Roma who were kicked out of the town of Vsetín while Jiří Čunek was still  its mayor. Žiga’s family was relocated to the Jeseník region in October 2006 on what he says was a threat the state would take away the family’s children. Žiga is shown here in April in front of the house he shares with 12 of his family members. Behind him is his girlfriend, with whom he has a 1-year-old child. Václav Zástěra, director of Roma Vidnava, says the families are still trying to move back to Vsetín. Žiga says his family is in low spirits. “More than anything they need moral support,” he says.

 

BIRTHRIGHT

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
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Viktorka, photographed in March at three weeks old, was given to a Klokánek, a privately run orphanage, after her Ukrainian parents gave her up for adoption because they could not care for her. Viktorka is one of several Ukrainian children who have been orphaned in the Czech Republic by migrant parents who can’t make ends meet. She has since been granted asylum, paving the way for her adoption by Czech parents. She left the Hostivice Klokánek Aug. 25 and lives with the Czech family that is seeking to adopt her, a process that should be completed in February, says Eva Klikarová, a social worker at the Klokánek.  

 

HARD SELL

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
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U.S. President George W. Bush visited Prague last June in part to make a pitch for the radar base the United States wants to put on the Brdy military grounds near Prague. The radar would work in conjunction with interceptor missiles that the States would like to station in Poland. Whether to host the radar base has been a deeply controversial topic, with polls indicating that most residents do not support the project. The government is still in talks with the United States, and Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg says he expects the negotiations to last until February.
 

HARSH SPOTLIGHT

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
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Jiří Čunek announced his resignation from the posts of deputy prime minister and regional development minister Nov. 1, but by year’s end it appeared he didn’t intend to stay resigned for long. Čunek, chairman of the Christian Democrats, had suffered a number of allegations over the year, including the January 2007 accusation that he’d accepted a 500,000 Kč bribe when he was mayor of Vsetín, and the October revelation that he’d collected welfare benefits in the 1990s while stashing away 3.5 million Kč. In December Čunek accepted his party’s renomination to his old posts, a move that’s prompted threats of resignation from other parties. 
 

VIOLENT CLASH

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
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The Nov. 10 anniversary of Kristallnacht became the date of an attempted march by neo-Nazis through Prague’s Jewish quarter. That day, peaceful Jewish gatherings on Old Town Square contrasted with outbreaks of violence, as anarchists turned out to clash with the right-wing extremists. The upheavals were contained by a force of 1,915 police, including the officer pictured here on Pařížská street, calling for a doctor to treat a protester. Afterward, city officials claimed success in stopping the march, and extremists called the authorities’ clampdown a limitation of free speech. A right-wing group is reportedly planning a march for free speech in Plzeň Jan. 19­ — a date that corresponds with the deportation of Jewish residents from the town in 1942.  


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