Last week 44/08

The Czech Republic's Indian summer climaxed with temperatures of over 20 degrees Celsius, and meteorologists announced that it would not get any warmer this year. The USA abolished visas for Czechs. Eight thousand young salmon were released in the Kamenice river in the Děčín district. The Social Democrats (ČSSD) won regional elections across the whole Czech Republic. „Schools, pensions, benefits? We here in Hradec never promised anything of the sort. That was said by the ČSSD party leadership, so ask them,“ replied the new regional commissioner for Hradec Králové, Lubomír Franc, when asked by the newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes how he would enact his party's pre-election campaign promises to provide higher retirement benefits and pre-schools for „all parents,“ considering retirement benefits are not among regional governments' legislative powers and pre-schools in the regions are not admitting new children due to a shortage of financing. The Chamber of Deputies passed the state budget proposal for next year following its first reading. Parliamentary deputies rejected the opposition's fourth attempt to pass a motion of no confidence in the government. The financial crisis crossed the border into the Czech Republic and affected the Československá obchodní banka, whose management announced that its expected profit would drop by 6.5 billion crowns owing to bad investments in unsecured US mortgages. Twenty percent of Czech companies warned the public that they would begin to lay off workers, and experts calculated that 20 million jobs would be lost worldwide due to the global economic crisis. The European Union confirmed at its summit that, regardless of tough times, it intends to decide on its prepared plan to fight global warming by the end of the year. Drawings by Adriena Šimotová were exhibited in Plzeň. Fifty years passed since the law was passed that allowed Czechoslovakia's Communist authorities to seize horses and wagons from all the Roma in the country at the time, assign residences to them and prohibit them from migrating. „It's like a declaration of war; we might even be forced to introduce our own patrols in the end - because nobody knows when those people will come back,“ Jitka Kokyová, a Roma resident of Litvínov, told the newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes after a 400-strong corps of neo-Nazi militants arrived in town, greeted with applause from part of the local population, with the aim of „teaching a lesson to the maladjusted and too widespread“ Roma; the police managed to disperse the thugs after a drawn-out street fight. German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Prague, and, after meeting with her, Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek announced that the Czech Republic would approve the Lisbon Treaty by the end of the year. Social Democratic and Communist party representatives on the Chrastava town council blocked a motion to place a memorial plaque honoring Chrastava native Rudolf Fuksa, who fought against Bolshevik terror as a „pedestrian“ agent in the 1950s and was caught and executed at the age of 22, in the town. For her documentary film René, director Helena Třeštíková became the first Czech filmmaker to win a European Film Academy award. Tibetan monks from the Tashilhunpo monastery ceremonially created a sand mandala, dedicated to Avalokitesvar, at Prague's new town hall and then scattered it during a Cham ritual dance.

The press reported that Hungary was collapsing, that its banks were in serious trouble and that the International Monetary Fund had offered the country financial aid and expert assistance. „Although some Eastern European countries managed fairly well at the beginning of the crisis, now they are being affected by the worsening situation in Western Europe,“ said Thomas Mirow, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, explaining the progress of the crisis in the East. Czech President Václav Klaus accused French counterpart and current EU head Nicolas Sarkozy of „destroying capitalism“ by proposing Europe-wide regulation of banks in the interest of overcoming the raging crisis; at the same time, Klaus welcomed Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov to financial talks and decided to go to Ireland in November to thank its citizens for rejecting the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum last summer. The Health Ministry allowed medications for high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy and Parkinson's disease to be sold over the counter. The Czech Republic filed an official request to have valašský frgál (Wallachian cake) placed on the list of original European brands. A funeral was held in the Břevnov monastery for Václav Kočka Jr., the man who was inexplicably murdered at ČSSD Chairman Jiří Paroubek's party. Centrum.cz, the number-two internet portal operator in the Czech Republic, expanded to the Balkans.