Last week 51/2006

The Chamber of Deputies approved the budget with a record deficit of 91.5 billion crowns; in protest to the size of the deficit, Finance Minister Vlastimil Tlustý voted against the budget. Students from across the country competed in a gift-wrapping contest in Třebíč. Ostrava’s Mošnov Airport was renamed to Leoš Janáček Airport. A spot three times larger than the Earth appeared on the Sun’s surface. The warm weather continued; roses bloomed in Loket and an avenue of cherry trees blossomed in the Highlands. The Austrian Parliament called on the government in Vienna to file suit against the Czech Republic in international court for breaching a contractually agreed safety dialogue between the two countries by secretly granting the final building approval to Temelín Nuclear Power Plant. Czech President Václav Klaus called the Austrian effort to take the disputed matter to court “scandalous” and Foreign Minister Alexandr Vondra warned Vienna that the lawsuit means the “absolute end” of the Czech-Austrian dialogue on safety.

The Army’s command announced its intention to scrap fifty-year-old model 58 sub-machine guns from its weaponry. “When one doesn’t aim high, one won’t achieve anything,” Gernot Mittendorfer told Hospodářské noviny after replacing Jack Stack as president of Česká spořitelna. Mounted police began guarding forests to deter Christmas tree thieves in the Zlín Region. Statisticians announced that this year Czechs wagered 16 billion crowns and spent twice as much on trips abroad. Tomáš Hanák took a year vacation from Sklep Theatre. Media reported that Augusto Pinochet had died. Znojmo began demolishing the local bankrupt dilled pickle factory. A ceremonial roll call for the MNF-1 army contingent, whose members are leaving to serve in a foreign mission in Iraq, took place at the military base in Jince u Příbram. “I personally am a passionate huntsman, but I have to say that this law, in its current likeness, represents a norm that, in terms of its absurdity, has no precedence in Czech history – perhaps only the imperial highest hunter Hermann Göring managed something similar,” said senator and Respekt co-owner Karel Schwarzenberg of a Constitutional Court decision that did not grant a complaint filed by local forest owners and ruled that the legally authorized sovereign of domestic forest areas are solely huntsmen, who may violate proprietary rights, build whatever they want in forests, drive out the owners, shoot if they feel like it, and, above all, can maintain very high numbers of animals so there is always something to shoot at, regardless of the fact that the appetite of the overpopulated game – as Schwarzenberg claims – “threatens Czech forests as such.” “Our philosophy proceeds from the fact that game management in our country has historically been perceived as an activity leading to protecting the environment and game,” Constitutional Court spokesperson Michal Spáčil explained the verdict. The Church of Scientology held a nationwide campaign in the streets of Czech cities called “Say no to drugs!” The consumer contribution for recycling old refrigerators dropped from 420 to 300 crowns. The Brussels commission warned Czech producers of “spread butter” to stop calling their product “butter” because its fat content is not as high as the fat content of real butter according to European regulations; on a front-page article entitled “Brussels Barracks Harmony,” Lidové noviny commentator Martin Zvěřina subsequently informed readers that he was “truly shaken up by the news of that ban.” The canning company Hamé Babice put a new series of low-calorie sandwiches on the market under the brand Hamé Lifestyle. Deputies decided to keep current Ombudsman Otakar Motejl in the job for another six-year term. The government rejected a proposal to make Good Friday a national holiday. Thirty scientists, philosophers, historians, and representatives of the general public presented a petition to the Academy of Sciences calling on the organization to revoke František Holeček’s Jan Potočka Memorial Medal because it is not befitting of a person who participated in persecuting and harassing people from cultural and spiritual spheres as an agent of the communist state security organization under totalitarianism. “I think we have our own European culture and traditions and those should be reflected by everyone who wants to live in our country,” replied outgoing Interior Minister Ivan Langer when asked by Mladá fronta Dnes, “Would you ban Muslim women from covering themselves in the Czech Republic?” The Christmas carol The Lord Jesus Christ is Born was sung simultaneously on eight squares in western Bohemian towns. Former deputy for the Civic Democratic Party Martin Kocourek became the new chairman of the supervisory board of ČEZ.