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Poor neighbors. They were
apparently the best bargain to be had this Christmas season,
at least
from the standpoint of the European Union. At its summit
in Copenhagen, the EU confirmed that those members scheduled
to come aboard in 2004 would receive much less money than
had been hoping for. The Czech Republic will get the least
of all - less than half the amount that will go to fellow
poor neighbors Poland and Slovakia. The government's reaction
was to high-tail it to Copenhagen and beg for some more.
Sure, the Czechs have come a lot further than the rest
of the poor lot, but try selling that back home. Fortunately,
chief Euro-sceptic Václav Klaus was too busy losing control
of his party to make much of an issue out of it. At the
ODS party congress, the Civic Democrats chose Mirek Topolánek,
a relatively unknown senator from North Moravia, to be
their new chairman. The favored candidate, Petr Nečas,
ended up losing because he struck many as too wimpy and
too close to Klaus. It was time for a fresh face and there
was no better indication of that than the long look on
Klaus' face afterwards. Klaus still has his sights set
on the Castle, but Topolánek might now want to finish him
off as a way to assume full control of the party. Premier
©pidla would also like to undercut his predecessor, Miloą
Zeman, who has been whipping up support among the Social
Democrats for his own presidential bid. It's bad enough
the thought of the greasy Zeman installing his corrupt
band of cronies in the Castle, but the president has the
power to dismiss governments, and Zeman has shown no love
for ©pidla's. Taking no chances, the government announced
that it was investigating a highway contract Zeman authorized
just before leaving office. The Zemanites simply laughed
off the allegations. Has ©pidla forgotten he was a member
of Zeman's government at the time? Another member, former
Justice Minister Jaroslav Bureą, will go on the ballot
as the official candidate for the Social Democrats. It
would seem that ©pidla chose the bookish Bureą, who served
as a judge under Communsit regime, for the sole purpose
of horsetrading. Perhaps he intends to offer his real support
to Petr Pithart, the president of the Senate and the candidate
for ©pidla's unruly coalition partners, the Populists and
Unionists. They, in turn, would quit causing him trouble
over little things like the budget and finance reform.
The former Communist-turned-dissident Pithart is also the
only acceptable candidate for Václav Havel, which might
go a long way in a country that still likes to moan, "If
not Havel, who?" The coalition partners have even devised
a plan to jointly support Bureą in Parliament and Pithart
in the Senate as a way of cutting out Klaus as well. When
word of that got out, some leading Civic Democrats let
it be known that if Klaus doesn't make it through the first
round of voting, they were prepared to support Zeman. But
that was before Topolánek was elected their new leader.
He quickly announced that his party would support Klaus
and only Klaus. It was an ingenious way of showing loyalty
to the man while at the same time asking the other parties,
"Now, what are you going to do for us?" With Klaus, Zeman
and Havel all gone in one sweep, the Czech political scene
could well enter an era of optimism not seen since the
fall of Communism in 1989. And yet the Czechs are nothing
if not consistent. This is clearly evident by the annual
Zlaté slavíky (Golden Nightingales), the pop music awards
in this country. For the past three years the award for
best male vocalist has gone to Karel Gott, best female
vocalist to Lucie Bílá and best group to Lucie. Same people,
same acceptance speech, same boycott by Lucie (the group).
The organizers admitted that the hardcore fans had gained
a lock on the event by sending in multiple ballots. This
year, things would be different. This year, all votes would
be cast via cell phone only. One phone, one vote, once.
They would thus eliminate duplicate voting and maybe, just
maybe, add a fresh face to the awards. And the winners
this year? Karel Gott, Lucie Bílá and Lucie. Same people,
same acceptance speech, same boycott, meaning the only
difference this time around is the cell phone companies
finally got a piece of the action. For the fans of the
also-rans, there was always New Year's Eve and the variety
show - the same variety show - put on every year by the
cream of Czech entertainment. They sing, they dance, do
parodies of politicians and each other. And when the commercials
come on, simply flip the channel and you can catch them
doing the same thing on another station.
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