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Preamble to Vote
Following hours of heated debate on Tuesday, the Czech
Parliament postponed a vote of confidence in the country's new
Social Democrat government until Wednesday. In spite of various
exchanges of opinion, which took place, Premier Milos Zeman's
leftist administration, IS expected to survive the vote thanks to
a pact with the Civic Democratic Party, the ODS. Pauline Newman has
the story.
Opening the debate, Milos Zeman took a shot at the previous centre-
right government led by Vaclav Klaus, which collapsed last November
over a party financing scandal. He said the old system had
concentrated too much on the power elite.
Echoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Zeman said he wanted
to empower individuals by creating what he called: "A knowledge
society" with solidarity for the poor, elderly and infirm.
All very well and good, but with centre right parties holding 102
of the 200 seats in the house, and all political parties focused on
membership of the European Union, the new government was expected
to be largely pragmatic and market-friendly.
Opposition politicians criticised the declared goal of privatising
state run banks by the year 2001 and called Mr Zeman's intention to
keep energy prices frozen until 2002: "A flight of fancy".
Although ODS leader Vaclav Klaus and Mr Zeman's long term rival
told the house his party would stick to its pact and allow the
government to survive the confidence vote, he also had a few sharp
words regarding the policy statement.
Scorning the programme, saying it was full of "...propaganda,
alibis and empty phrases" Mr Klaus warned that his party would not
permit the approval of "unreasonable or unacceptable measures".
He said that he did not believe the cabinet seriously meant the
goals stated in its programme. According to Vaclav Klaus, the ODS
was not about to tolerate the cabinet because of its policy
statement, but because of the situation after the elections in June
and the behaviour of other political parties.
Analysts are chiefly concerned about the absence of any specific
legislation in the programme. They believe this leaves open the
chance that the cabinet WILL deliver a deficit 1999 state budget in
September, despite Finance Minister Ivo Svoboda's promise to the
contrary.
Although there are some points which have been welcomed by
observers such as a watchdog campaign to stamp out financial
corruption, the programme does include more interventionist
policies which have raised political hackles, prompting Vaclav
Klaus and other opposition leaders to brand it "a return to
socialism".
Renowned scientist Otto Wichterle died
Otto Wichterle, one of the leading Czech scientists of the 20th century and father of the soft contact lens, died on Tuesday at the age of 84. Peter Smith looks back at professor's Wichterle's life.
Otto Wichterle was unquestionably one of the world's foremost authorities on macromolecular chemistry in medicine, but it was the scientist's discovery of the polymer Hema that is his lasting legacy. Hema had the special quality of being able to absorb water and therefore stay moist on the eyeball, and according to industry reports, professor Wichterle used the material to spin the world's first soft contact lens on Christmas Day 1961.
Despite the rights being purchased by the health group Bausch and Lomb in 1966 and the contact lens being widely marketed in the US after 1971, Otto Wichterle never became wealthy from his discovery. Instead, he suffered at the hands of the Czechoslovak authorities after helping to organise anti-communist protests during the Prague Spring of 1968.
He was removed from his position as the head of the Czechoslovak Chemistry Institute in 1970, although he continued his work as a researcher until the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
In 1990, Otto Wicherle was appointed Head of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science, and upon the split of the country three years later, was made the honorary head of the Czech Academy.
The academy stated Tuesday that Otto Wicherle's family had declined to disclose the cause of his death.
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