Talking Point | All stories

From September 12-15, 2006 the Austrian capital of Vienna played host to the first-ever international conference devoted exclusively to the phenomenon of central European samizdat and tamizdat networks. Hosted by the Vienna Institute for Human Sciences, in cooperation with German, American and Hungarian-based scholarly institutions, the meeting brought together a group including members of the former democratic opposition in communist Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Russia, as well as scholars and journalists who write about this

For weeks now, the issue of a possible U.S. anti-missile defense base in central Europe has ignited much discussion in both the Czech Republic and in neighbouring Poland. According to official statements from Washington D.C., one or both of these countries will be offered the possibility of hosting an American anti-missile facility. Such a base would house only defensive missiles, and be under the administrative control of the United States. We take a look at both sides of this sensitive topic.

On Monday, more than three months after the general elections in June, President Vaclav Klaus appointed a new Civic Democratic minority cabinet led by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek. However, even before its appointment commentary from all sides of the political spectrum indicated that no one expects this government to survive long—perhaps only for 30 days if the initial vote of confidence, expected to be held on October 4, fails. The Civic Democrats are themselves saying that their intention is to bring the country to early elections. In this

It's been over a month since the new driving regulations and a rather strict point system came into effect in the Czech Republic, and there has been both approval and some grumbling about the matter. In this week's Talking Point we take to the streets to find out what Czechs are saying about the system, and we talk with Zdenek Bambas, the Director of the traffic police division at the Ministry of the Interior, to get his opinion on some of the key issues.

Czech patients, compared to patients in the rest of Europe, are facing troubling conditions when it comes to accessibility to modern medicine. Despite having quite a good reputation in cancer research, for example, the state subsidies for cancer drugs are very low. That's also one of the reasons why the Czech Republic was ranked 22nd in a health care study of the 25 states in the European Union.

Last week's 14th all-Sokol slet brought thousands of Czechs who now live abroad back to Prague, some as participants and others as observers of the gymnastics gathering. The daughter of Martin Hrabik, an interwar Agrarian Party member and activist, Mary Hrabik Samal now lives in Detroit, USA, and she was among the observers of the Sokol slet. In this special edition of Talking Point, Mary Hrabik Samal remembers what life was like in the 1940s and 1950s, when the fate of the Agrarian Party of Czechoslovakia was forever changed. When we sat down

More than a week after elections in the Czech Republic saw support for the Communist Party fall to 12% of the vote, there are still many voices on the Czech scene concerned with questions of the communist past. Some Czechs who once immigrated to escape the communist regime are dissatisfied with outcomes of property restitutions settlements, and historians and politicians are pushing for an Institute of National Memory to finally be established in the Czech Republic. In this week's Talking Point, we take a closer look behind the scenes and speak

This past weekend's elections in the Czech Republic confirmed some earlier predictions, such as the fact that the Greens would cross the 5% threshold and find themselves key to any future coalition-building efforts. But there were some surprises too, such as the fall-off in support for the Communists. In this week's Talking Point we take a closer look at these and other noteworthy aspects of the elections.

Polls have them running neck-and-neck days before the elections. Jiri Paroubek, the current Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party, and Mirek Topolanek, the leader of the opposition Civic Democratic Party. One of these two men is most likely to be the Czech Republic's next Prime Minister, but who are they and where did they come from? In this week's Talking Point we take a look at these two men and the images they project.

I have just walked out of a pharmacy with prescription pain killers for my ailing back, anti-histamines against my allergies, and some medication for my sprained wrist, which I just had x-rayed. It's been a week full of doctor's appointments and guess how much it's all cost me...a mere 45 Czech crowns, that's just about two US dollars. The rest was covered by my health insurer. If there is one thing that Czechs can boast about, then it's a very cheap and generous health care system, inherited from forty years of socialism. But this system is becoming