The Velvet Revolution?

In the last issue we remembered the state holidays of September 28 and October 28 and now we’ve just had another holiday on November 17. Since we are again running a little late, we are still able to report on this event. As of now, I am putting together the mosaic of events and picking out from piles of newspapers as well as from my own notes interesting bits of information for you to ponder. You may read about, “how nobody really knows how it happened”, although it must be clear to anyone whose brain is at least as big as a cherry, that the agreement between the dissidents and communists was preceded by some sort of agreement between USA and USSR.

As you may already know, the Social Democrats lost in elections twice in a row, recently into the European Parliament. They have tried to remedy the situation by exchanging the lackluster chief Spidla for the smiling, pretty-boy Gross who smiling down from the bill- boards insisted that he’s sincere in what he says. However, his smile disappeared when his party failed to win seats in the Senate and in regional government. Not all citizens are stupid even though there are about 20% who vote for the Communists. Most of the small number of voters who decided to vote, voted for the Right Wing ODS. Unfortunately, the voters did not have much of a choice and that was one of the reasons for such poor attendance. Further, the elections took place on two weekends when people would rather go to their weekend cottage. However, that would not be such an issue if they were not so disgusted with their greedy politicians who will do all for their own benefit and forget about the citizens.

When the ODS party was in power, it did not keep many of the promises it made. It tolerated fraud that hurt the economy, gave generous pensions to former StB workers, and was afraid to put into effect more drastic reforms. Instead, it chose to be populist. The Social Democratic Party that followed, declared a war against fraud, but followed in the footsteps of ODS. Furthermore, it started to give out money from a completely empty “state purse” thus putting the republic in debt for generations to come. Entrepreneurs were not supported. Thousands went bankrupt and joined the unemployed.

Policemen got a raise at a time when all of society was embittered by the fact that the police were not doing their job right. When the Police President was told that his people abused the power of tapping phones, he commented that it’s nothing out of the normal and it shouldn’t bother people who had done nothing wrong. The Prime Minister had his support but now he’s in a bit of trouble, since the former communist, Skromach is trying to push him out of his position.

Let’s just hope that people wake up and go to the next elections and force the Social Democrats out of power.