Since the position of the Czech Republic cannot be changed, the country has two options, he adds.
It proved the first one before and after World War Two when the sovereign Czechoslovakia was first occupied by the Nazi Germany and then by "the sovereign Russia." The country thereby lost 50 years of its normal development, not to mention the horrible losses of human lives, Hanak recalls.
At present the country has a chance of improving its position by allying with the pro-European Germany, an industrial and technological but not military power closely linked to the EU, and not with Russia, which is weakened and lagging behind in terms of technology but still dreaming its imperial dream, Hanak writes.
"We have been making this choice of a strong Union since our entry into the EU eight years ago. And the moaning of the right wing about our sovereignty being flown away to Brussels has been heard all the time," Hanak points out.
He writes that now the government is to decide whether to sign the treaty of the budget union or not. The signature means nodding to further integration, which might lead to harmonised taxes, and thus to the end of flat tax and the introduction of progressive taxation, which is unacceptable for the right wing.
Hanak says he would be for the signatures exactly for these reasons.
"Without the signature, the Czech Republic, as the only continental EU member (maybe along with Hungary) would choose the position of a country in which no one in Europe is much interested. It is really worth looking at the map," Hanak writes in conclusion.
The idea of Jan Palach, a student who burnt himself in 1969 to rouse the society from lethargy following the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, was pushed through only 20 years later, Zbynek Petracek writes in Lidove noviny (LN) today.
Jan Palach´s act of a peaceful self-sacrifice that harmed no one is a noncontroversial example of anti-communist resistance unlike, for example, the armed fight of the Masin brothers in the early 1950s, Petracek writes.
He reminds of the fact that Czechs are more interested in the cult of Jan Palach than in him alone and his motivation.
However, the cult was not autotelic. Without it, there would not be the "Palach week" in January 1989, anti-communist demonstrations in Prague centre on the occasion of Palach´s death anniversary during which Vaclav Havel was arrested for the last time. These events anticipated the November 1989 Velvet Revolution and the collapse of the communist regime, Petracek recalls.
Palach in his letter demanded only the abolition of censorship and of a collaborationist journal. He "merely" wanted to awaken society that started to resign itself to the occupation and the lack of freedom too quickly.
It was not Palach´s fault that his appeal failed but the society and its elites are to blame for it. This is being overshadowed when Palach is interpreted as a cult, Petracek concludes in LN.
The Czech government of the Civic Democrats (ODS), TOP 09 and Public Affairs (VV) is dissolving at least once in two weeks when one of the three coalition parties threatens to leave it for some reason, and therefore voters do not take such squabbles seriously any more, Robert Casensky writes in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) today.
He says the steadily repeated proclamations about a party´s departure from the government and the coalition´s end make voters´ attention blunt.
At first they awaited the result of the coalition disputes and battles tensely. However, now most of the viewers simply ignore them or feel bored, Casensky adds.
"If it continues like that, it may happen that once the government really dissolves, no one will notice it for long weeks," Casensky writes in conclusion. Author: CTK
www.ctk.cz
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