Year in Review: News

If the economic crisis was the story of 2009, the fallout from the crisis - and all its peripheral effects - is the single biggest story of 2010. From Greece and Ireland to funding for AIDS prevention in the Czech Republic, nearly everything was affected by what seems a consistent trend across the Western world: a drive to slash government expenditures.

But while austerity and the public's angry reactions to it left the single largest mark on the year, they were not the only ones. In the forthcoming pages, we present a roundup of the biggest happenings of the past year. From news and politics to business and culture, 2010 was truly memorable - for good (a nuclear reduction treaty between the United States and Russia) and for bad (Sex and the City 2). Below is a recounting of the biggest stories The Prague Post covered in 2010.

Banning of the Workers Party

The Constitutional Court ruled to ban the Workers Party (DS) Feb. 17. The far-right extremist group faced a similar case less than a year earlier but prevailed over what human rights experts termed a half-hearted attempt by Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek's government.

This time, a stronger case, which involved visual evidence associating the party with neo-Nazi groups, led to the ban. The government successfully proved that the party seeks to incite violence and hatred against minority groups, including Roma. Still, the concept of banning a political party raised eyebrows and led some to conclude that the court case could lay the groundwork for a future challenge to the legality of the Communist Party (KSČM). Others worried that the case would give the DS undue publicity.

"I can definitely say the trial did not discredit us; quite the contrary," DS leader Tomáš Vandas said.

The party later reconstituted itself under the name the Workers Party of Social Justice (DSSS). However, the newly named party had weak showings in both the May general election and October's Senate and local elections, perhaps lending credence to the decision to ban the group.

More missile defense

In a story The Prague Post first broke in February, but was not publicly acknowledged until August, the Czech Republic was deemed to be the site of an "early warning center" as part of amended European missile-defense plans.

Confirmation came as the Obama administration requested $2.2 million in funding for the project next year, followed by a separate public statement from Prime Minister Petr Nečas.

U.S. President Barack Obama scrapped Bush administration plans for a radar base 90 kilometers southwest of Prague in September 2009. Since then, the missile-defense project has morphed from a U.S.-driven project into a NATO one, with the military alliance's members pledging their support at this year's annual summit. The new system is said to include some form of cooperation with Russia, though details on that, and the specifics of what the Czech-based "early warning center" entails, are still murky.

Homeless camp

Civic Democratic (ODS) City Councilman Jiří Janeček proposed building an "integrated assistance center" for the homeless on the eastern outskirts of Prague. The City Council approved the plan Aug. 17, sparking outcry from human rights groups, NGOs and homeless people themselves with many questioning how the homeless would be moved into a single, isolated location.

"This idea for creating a camp for homeless people sounds like a concentration camp to me," said Miroslav Šimůnek, a homeless man.

As municipal elections approached in October, all major political parties turned against the idea, and with a new City Council in place, the camp is unlikely to ever be built.

Still, a cold snap in the early weeks of December that left 14 homeless people dead in the Czech capital highlighted the need to deal with the issue of homelessness.

Floods

In early August, five people died in floods in north Bohemia, which also caused damage in excess of 5 billion Kč. Some 2,000 people were evacuated during the disaster in the Liberec region, which destroyed two water-treatment plants and dozens of homes.

Floods also struck the Ústí region, where more than 1 billion Kč worth of damage was reported. Less serious flooding occured in the Plzeň, Pardubice and south Bohemia regions, as well as in Vysočina.

A massive response followed, with an emergency session of the government quickly releasing 40 million Kč in aid, as well as 50 fire and rescue units and 350 soldiers descending on the affected areas.

The disaster and the government's scramble for relief funds shed light on an earlier decision by the previous caretaker government of Jan Fischer to dip into the 3 billion Kč disaster relief budget to finance May's general election.

Spike in AIDS cases

In a story broken by The Prague Post, HIV/AIDS continues to spread in the Czech Republic, with 400 percent more new cases reported in 2010 compared with 10 years ago. This year is expected to generate more than 200 officially recorded new cases nationwide - with some experts saying the actual figure is likely many times higher - and the precipitous rise over the past decade directly correlates with continued cuts in government funding for treatment and prevention.

In 2010, the government spent less than 15 percent of what it did in 2001 on such programs, and announced in November that it would cease funding for all but one NGO that deals with the issue. Even that group will see their funding slashed 50 percent next year. The Health Ministry also reduced the number of related programs it runs from 39 to 16 for 2011. As of press time, statistics were still not available for December, but 27 reported new cases in November showed that the trend continues.

New START

U.S. President Barack Obama returned to Prague nearly a year after giving a speech urging a push to rid the world of nuclear weapons. This time, he was joined by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at Prague Castle April 8 to sign a treaty reducing both countries' strategic nuclear arms supplies.

Dubbed the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the agreement is the first major step in Obama's strategy calling for a "reset" in relations with Russia. In it, both countries agreed to slash deployed strategic nuclear warheads to below 1,550, intercontinental ballistic missile launchers (ICBM) to below 800, and deployed ICBMs to below 700. The treaty re-established a joint inspection regime that had lapsed and helped paved the way for a greater rapprochement between Russia and NATO later in the year, which saw Medevedev attend NATO's annual conference.

Obama scored a major legislative victory, getting the U.S. Senate to ratify the treaty just before the close of the year, during a so-called "lame-duck" session.

Austerity and anger

Government austerity measures have sparked passionate public reactions across Europe, and this was no different in the Czech Republic. The right-leaning coalition's planned budget cuts - which include a 10 percent across-the-board drop to public worker salaries - were met with fierce opposition, but appear inevitable.

On Sept. 21, some 30,000 public sector workers marched from Prague's Letná to Parliament protesting the cuts. A one-day strike of public workers Dec. 8 was followed by a demonstration of policemen and firefighters Dec. 15 (who are banned from striking by law). As of press time, nearly 4,000 hospital doctors have threatened to walk out at the turn of the year due to low salaries.

Such protests were outdone in their ferocity by Prague voters, who twice took to the streets to oppose what many view as a marriage of convenience between two old-guard parties - the ODS and the ČSSD - in the interest in protecting clientelist networks. The pair formed a coalition in City Hall, bypassing the election winner, TOP 09, and sparking demonstrations Nov. 17 (the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution) on Wenceslas Square and Nov. 30 on Mariánské náměstí.

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com