SURVEY OF CZECH PRESS, 27-7-1993

Czech press surveyed by Jan Jarab

Daily newspapers surveyed (in alphabetical order): Cesky denik, Lidova demokracie, Lidove noviny, Mlada fronta Dnes, Prace, Rude pravo, Svobodne slovo, Telegraf. Weekly: Respekt.

CESKY DENIK (right-wing) quotes Jiri Payne, the chairman of the Parliament's Committee for Foreign Policy, as saying: "If Europe looks passively on as a Great Serbia is created in the Balkans, it will have to count with the fact that similar ideas will start to appear in the Ukraine, in Hungary and elsewhere." Payne emphasized that Europe should defend the Bosnian state which it has recognized.

In an editorial on Czecho-Hungarian relations, CD points out that the disagreement between the Czech Republic and Hungary proves that common Czecho-Slovak interests still exist.

LIDOVE NOVINY (liberal) and PRACE (trade-union) inform that Duha, an environmental initiative, has renewed its blockade of the construction site of the nuclear power plant in Temelin. (JJ: The plant is still under criticism from the side of Austria, which suggests that there is still time to transform it into a conventional plant running on gas. President Havel, however, said during the weekend summit that the Czech Republic has to finish the nuclear plant, thus echoing the views of Premier Klaus, who is a supporter thereof.)

RUDE PRAVO (left-wing). Headline: "25 000 Romanies Live Illegally in The CR". The article presents results of "research" done by a commission from three ministries - among other things, the commission found that 40% of Romanies allegedly don't want to work, Romanies have committed more than 15 000 crimes last year, and 25 000 are in the CR "illegally" because they "can't get Czech citizenship" (i.e., they don't qualify for it). (JJ: This large article deserves comment. First of all, it is not clear what definition the authors of the study had for a "Romany"; according to the census, there are some 33 000 Romanies in the Czech Republic, according to Romany organizations there may be as much as 200-300 000, because the vast majority didn't claim Romany nationality. If the commission considered the census data, they are not valid at all; if it defined Romanies according to its own will, the results are dubious at best. How, for instance, were people of mixed ancestry considered, or those who are fully assimilat

ed? Furthermore, the number of Romanies who are unable to get Czech citizenship is likely to be much higher, as it includes - due to the discrimatory law on citizenship - many people who were actually born in the Czech lands, and now are pictured as "illegal aliens" although they never lived anywhere else!!)

SURVEY OF SLOVAK PRESS by ÇTK News Agency

BRATISLAVA, July 27 (ÇTK) - The suspension of coalition

talks between the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) and

the Slovak National Party (SNS) fulfils the prediction of

+Slovenský Denník+ that Premier Vladimír Meçiar's "coalition

game" would finish the moment his candidates were appointed to

the posts of chairman of the Supreme Inspection Office and

governor of the Slovak National Bank.

The daily, close to the opposition Christian Democratic

Movement (KDH), observes that the failure does not solve the

problem of the government being a minority in parliament.

"Meçiar skilfully exploited Çernák's (fake) naively positive

approach, and still is attempting to publicly discredit him

through alleged SNS demands for money from state funds," the

paper adds.

The independent +Národná obroda+ considers the quarrel

between the HZDS and SNS to in fact be about privatisation: it

is a struggle between two industrial lobbies, one led by Meçiar

and the other by Çernák. The HZDS-SNS clash over the Ministry

for the Administration and Privatisation of National Property

and the National Property Fund is fateful, the daily writes,

noting that when Łubomír Dolgo was dismissed from the position

of privatisation minister, Meçiar immediately tried to fill

the vacuum with his own man and nominated a person he could

trust to the position of secretary of state for this department.

Çernák on the other hand represents the younger dynamic

"managers" who would like to create a new Slovak bourgeoisie -

"although not in the classic Marxist sense," +Národná obroda+

adds.

The tabloid +Nový Ças+ reports that six army grenades were

discovered in the cellar of a block of flats in the

Bratislava-Petrćalka housing estate. On Saturday evening three

teenagers handed a police patrol a live offensive hand-grenade

containing 100 g of triton (explosive) after children playing

with it dropped it about five metres onto a concrete play area.

Four more hand-grenades were handed to the police by a

mother whose son found them in the cellar after the public had

been informed of the danger. Another citizen handed over a

grenade he had found lying in a place the police had already

searched. "Whoever is not horrified by the thought of children

on a Slovak housing estate playing with live hand-grenades is

inhuman," concluded +Nový Ças+.