Last week 25/2006

Bohemia and Moravia were struck by a heat wave which stopped Prague’s astronomical clock for an hour due to its force. Talks continued between Mirek Topolánek, Miroslav Kalousek and Martin Bursík on setting up the government; the result is that the cabinet seats should be divvied up as such: 9 (Civic Democrats – ODS) – 3 (Christian Democrats – KDU-CSL) – 3 (Green Party). The Virgin Mary statue returned to the plague column in Uničov. Czech Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek set off to Slovakia to help the political party Direction with its election campaign. “It was as if an exquisite comet had suddenly emerged from a black sky,” wrote Lidové noviny to describe the phenomenal performance of Czech national football team member Tomáš Rosický during its match with the United States. The jubilation, however, was spoiled by Jan Koller’s injury. Demolition of the Baroque House at the Seven Beetles in Brno, which was supposed to have been declared a national monument but wasn’t due to the authorities’ lack of action, began.

Czech Airlines announced a period of cutbacks. Mobile phone operators delighted customers going on holiday by starting to reduce the cost of calling from abroad. The Red Hot Chili Peppers played in Prague, and tickets to Madonna’s concert this fall sold out within roughly two hours. The International Monetary Fund called on politicians to intervene less in the economy and to reduce public finance deficits. Half of all Czechs consider the state of the environment in the Czech Republic bad, but they don’t want to pay to change it. “We’ll never find anything as beautiful as the Earth until we set forth to another solar system,” the media cited physicist Stephen Hawking, who proposed populating Mars. The media reported that post Velvet Revolution federal interior minister and current head of Slovakia’s National Memory Institute Ján Langoš had died in a car accident. According to the EU Statistical Office (Eurostat), the Czech Republic is the seventeenth richest country in the union. Petr Uhl was awarded the French Honorable Legion order for his advocacy of human rights. The police stopped prosecution of the National Party members who had denied the Roma Holocaust and the existence of the concentration camp in Lety near Písek because the Historical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic did not recognize the site as an extermination camp. Three trains collided in Vranovice na Břecslavsku. The present leadership of the Chamber of Deputies parted with the president at the Prague Castle, and Václav Klaus gave each one a book of his speeches. “To read six hundred books as required reading in two years is absurd. Let the politicians try it themselves,” high school student Lucie Komárková sent word to the ministry of education after joining eight thousand young people who signed a petition against the state school leaving exams. Former Deputy Táňa Fischerová founded a new political party, Key Movement, which should present a real alternative. Jazz singer Vlasta Průchová died at the age of 79. Cyril Svoboda managed to push through a measure under which the European Union will take a unified and critical approach to the Cuban dictatorship. Škoda Auto started building a college campus in Mladá Boleslav. Karlovy Vary high school student Martin Tomis came to the conclusion in a school project that the volume of risky loans in China amounts to 350 billion dollars; Komerční banka has already begun applying his project. St. Anne’s Hospital in Brno refused to apologize to Mrs. Jana Motyčková for irradiating the healthy part of her body during chemotherapy and thereby endangering her life. Joo-jo Circus director Jaromír Joo rode on the back of a Ussurian tiger in České Budějovice in order to finally break a world record. Scouts in Turnov celebrated the ninetieth anniversary of their founding. More than one hundred bands performed at the United Islands of Prague festival in the capital city. “I wanted the Euro-skeptic opinions of ODS to be heard there,” said Prime Minister Paroubek, explaining why he had Václav Klaus represent the Czech Republic at the EU summit instead of him. Interest in the TV show Kolotoč increased. The Municipal Court in Prague validated a previous verdict and awarded the St. Vitus Cathedral to the Catholic Church. Nikola Suhaj’s daughter was parted with in Carpathian Ruthenia. The Czech Environmental Inspection imposed a fine of two billion crowns on the Kolín-based chemical plant Draslovka for poisoning the Elbe River with cyanide. The Supreme Administrative Court received sixty-six complaints on the course of the parliamentary elections. Prima TV shot the final episode of the soap opera Family Bonds, however, there is reportedly hope of continuation.