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September 7th, 2008
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February 13th, 2008 | Current Issue

Visa countdown
Czechs visiting the U.S. could face fewer barriers starting this fall

No-vote creates election 'fiasco'
Analysts react to the first three rounds and look ahead to more

The future of the electoral process
Officials and pundits discuss the likelihood of a direct vote

Some sausage stands saved
City to revamp stands as part of future facelift for Wenceslas Square

New UK business group gains traction after chamber split
Local firms express positive reactions to nonprofit's launch

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BRIEFS


By Ondřej Bouda

Staff Writer
ISIFA
Chaos, back-room deals and an ultimate no-vote had members of Parliament worried that they'd look like "idiots" to the public.
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I woke up Friday, Feb. 8, full of expectations for the day. After all, I thought I’d be covering the most serious political event of the year — the presidential election. I switched on the TV to catch up on the latest developments, but instead the main news channel, ČT24, was interviewing Jan Švejnar’s kindergarten teacher, who told viewers that “little Johnny used to be a happy and inquisitive child and his favorite song was ‘Pekla vdolky z bílý mouky’[She Baked Biscuits from White Flour].” This absurd tone turned out to be prophetic.

It all started out well enough. In the Spanish Hall, where the day’s events took place, the gathering officials spoke of the importance of a “dignified” election. The proceedings started with speeches from both candidates. Václav Klaus made a virtue of boredom, talking about continuity and predictability. Švejnar, on the other hand, promised respect, service and responsibility, looking toward the future rather than focusing on the past. No surprises there. Everyone appeared to listen carefully except Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who dozed off and later claimed that it was a “dignified sleep.”
The assembled senators and deputies then had a chance to react to the speeches. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek took off on a rant, blaming the opposition for everything just short of floods and supernovas. Not long afterward, Environment Minister Martin Bursík said Klaus was an embarrassment to the country and that it was time for a change. Jiří Čunek, the leader of the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL), kept to tradition in his speech by refusing to say whom the party supports. The Communists, for their part, said they did not support anyone and wished to block the election and come up with new candidates.
Klaus spent the morning session sitting at his table and signing photographs. When the leader of the opposition, Jiří Paroubek, said that it was time for Klaus to leave politics, the president got up angrily and left the room without a word. By then it was time for lunch anyway, and so the meeting was adjourned.
After lunch all hell broke loose. Instead of deciding on whom to vote for, the senators and deputies argued about how to vote. The ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) wanted a secret vote, while everyone else wanted a public vote. The parties ignored the tentative agreement they’d reached on the issue the night before, and instead started fighting all over again. Since the ODS has a majority in the Senate, it managed to block the proceedings for several hours. Proposals, counterproposals and objections flew through the air so fast it was almost impossible to follow what was actually happening. But, essentially, the delegates were arguing about how to vote on which type of vote to use.
The meeting adjourned after several hours of pointless debate; the Czech tennis team was playing Belgium in the Davis Cup, and Topolánek and Klaus are both avid tennis fans. So they took time off to watch the match. Other journalists switched on the TV to watch as well with comments like, “At least here we’ll achieve a definite result.”
I took this opportunity to step out for a bit of fresh air. In front, there was a demonstration with a poster that said, “Better Mickey Mouse than Václav Klaus.” I ended up with chatted with several curious tourists instead. I explained to them that the castle was closed to the public due to the presidential election and told them to come back the next day, when it would surely be open.
Round one
I couldn’t have been more wrong. As soon as the delegates met again at 7:30 that evening, they decided to continue the election Saturday morning. However, they conceded that, unless they wanted everyone to think of them as “complete idiots,” they’d at least have to start voting. So, despite the previous 10 hours of heated debate, they quickly agreed to vote publicly, and started the first round just after 8 p.m. The whole day of debate was thus completely pointless and tempers were flaring on all sides. “This is making us look like idiots,” said Přemysl Sobotka (ODS), chairman of the Senate.
The public vote was quickly organized and within a few minutes the first round was over. Švejnar won in the Chamber of Deputies and Klaus won in the Senate. Both candidates thus advanced to the second round. That took place immediately, but surprisingly the results were not announced — the Social Democrats (ČSSD) managed to block the meeting in which they were to be revealed until 9 p.m., when the proceedings had to adjourn by law, unless the delegates decided otherwise. Several quick proposals by the ODS to extend the time for the debate were scrapped and before the results of the second round could be read the meeting adjourned till the morning.
Senator Jaroslav Kubera (ODS) — who had carried a teddy bear around all day, saying it would help him vote — stormed out of the Spanish Hall, yelling, “This is terrible. These people make me sick. The public will call us all a band of nincompoops. But they should be told who’s responsible.”
Day two
Saturday morning proved to be as prophetic as the day before. My breakfast turned out to be less fresh than I’d expected, and I got a perfect case of food poisoning. Regardless of my indisposition I went to the castle again.  
It quickly became apparent that any type of sickness was extremely useful this day. Both chambers of Parliament met at 10 a.m. as planned, announced the results of the second round and — because no candidate had won — prepared for the third. The meeting was adjourned after 10 minutes for further negotiations, as it seemed that Klaus had a chance to win the third round, a development the Švejnar camp did not want to allow.
During the break, two senators from the KDU-ČSL and one deputy from the ČSSD mysteriously fell ill and had to be transported to a hospital. Rumors of blackmail and shady deals started surfacing. Several delegates received vulgar and threatening text messages. At a few points it looked as though fisticuffs would break out among delegates from the ODS and the ČSSD. All in all, the dignified election process was shattered to pieces.
Again in need of fresh air, I went outside to the castle gates, where I ran into a French couple I’d met the day before. They asked why the castle was still closed, when I’d told them it would be open. I admit that I failed miserably in trying to explain the intricacies of Czech politics and ended up brushing them off with advice to come back again the next day.
Thankfully, the Davis Cup continued over the weekend with doubles, which the prime minister wanted to watch. So, Parliament, after taking a break that lasted several hours, met finally at 2 p.m. for the third round of the election. As promised, the Communists did not vote for any of the candidates, and the election ended without a winner. The result was one extremely sick journalist, three mysteriously sick politicians and 10 million Czechs sick of the charades. And the whole process is set to start all over again this Friday.
Ondřej Bouda can be reached at obouda@praguepost.com

RUSSIA The planned U.S. missile-defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is forcing Russia to engage in another arms race, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a Feb. 8 nationally televised speech, the BBC reported. Although the Russian government did not start this race, it will be “forced to retaliate” against the United States’ and NATO’s failure to compromise with the country on a Central and East European defense strategy, Putin said.

FRANCE President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to tackle the problems besetting the nation’s immigrant suburbs, The New York Times reported. He vowed Feb. 8 to send 4,000 additional police officers and to offer aid packages to neighborhoods struggling with poverty and riots. Assistance would also include busing children out of underperforming schools and job training programs.
SERBIA Kosovo’s plans to declare independence later this month could lead to an escalation of conflicts, Serbian President Boris Tadić said in a Feb. 8 security conference in Munich, according to BBC. The pro-Western leader added that he could not accept the dismemberment of his country and called for renewed talks on the issue to prevent the situation from “spiraling out of control.”
EU Recent outbreaks of violence in N’Djamena, the Chadian capital, have forced the EU to delay the deployment of 3,700 peacekeepers to the region, the BBC reported Feb. 11. Charged with the protection of refugees and aid workers, the French-led EU force was originally scheduled to arrive in Chad Feb. 1.
SWITZERLAND A group of armed robbers stole more than $100 million worth of art from a Zurich museum Feb. 10, according to the Associated Press (AP). Police said the stolen works included paintings by van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne and Degas.
UK In a speech that roused a storm of opposition from the country’s politicians, the archbishop of Canterbury called for Britain to adopt aspects of Islamic Sharia law alongside the existing legal system Feb. 8, according to the IHT. Drawn from the Quran, Sharia law prescribes religious and secular duties, and deals with issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.
SPAIN Police arrested at least 13 members of the Batasuna, an illegal Basque separatist party Feb. 11 in a continuing crackdown on groups linked to the armed organization ETA. Such enforcement measures are leading up to the country’s March. 9 general elections, the AP reported. Separately, two other separatist parties were barred from political activity for three years due to alleged links to ETA.
TURKEY In a decision that could set the stage for a showdown with the nation’s secular elite, the Turkish parliament voted Feb. 9 in favor of a constitutional amendment that would lift a ban against women’s head scarves at local universities, the IHT reported. Lawmakers imposed the ban in the late 1990s in response to a growing number of covered women in colleges, which they saw as threat to the secularism of modern Turkey.
AUSTRIA A fire at a retirement home in western Austria left 11 people dead and six injured Feb. 8, according to AP. The blaze, which started when 23 residents and two supervisors were in the building, began on the first floor and was fought by about 250 firefighters.
FRANCE Far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen received a three-month suspended prison sentence and a 10,000-euro ($14,600/255,500 Kč) fine Feb. 8 for minimizing the brutality of the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, AP reported. In 2005, Le Pen labeled the occupation as “not particularly inhumane” in an interview for a far-right national magazine.

ASYLUM Two Americans were arrested for overstaying their 90-day visa-free tourist period, the daily Právo reported Feb. 12. A deportation order was issued but the two men applied for political asylum and were relocated to a refugee camp. The Americans claimed family reasons for being in the Czech Republic.

TERROR The government approved an updated plan for the fight against terrorism for 2007–09, according to a Feb. 11 Czech News Agency (ČTK) report. Key measures include preventing the emergence of secluded refugee communities and the radicalization of their members, as well as better integration with EU activities.
AFGHANISTAN Thirty-nine Czech soldiers left Feb. 11 for Logar, Afghanistan, where they will make preparations for the arrival of another 160 soldiers in mid-March, Právo reported. The reconstruction team is to remain in the country for three years and help the local population.
MURDER Former Czechoslovak communist prosecutor Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, now 86, who was threatened with eight years in prison for sentencing Czech democratic politician Milada Horáková to death on trumped up charges in the 1950s, will not be punished, ČTK reported Feb. 11. Brožová-Polednová’s case has been shown to be statute-barred.
ACCUSED The police have accused Barbora Škrlová, a Czech woman who previously misled the Czech and Norwegian authorities by passing herself off as a 13-year-old, of maltreating the 7-year-old son of her acquaintance, Mladá fronta Dnes reported Feb. 11.
PRIVACY An amendment strengthening the privacy rights of crime victims received government approval Feb. 11, ČTK reported. The amendment seeks to limit the media’s right to publish personal information about minors and rape and assault victims, Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil said.
AGING The local elderly population will increase 1 million by the year 2050, according to a Feb. 11 Czech Statistical Office report. Labor and Social Affairs Minister Petr Nečas said the government will need to implement extensive pension reforms to adapt to these demographic changes, a ČTK report said.

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