Yearbook 2009
Czech Republic. According to countryaah, the country’s troubled domestic policy had consequences for the EU during the year. The country took over as president of the Union at the New Year, when the government was weakened by the electoral defeat in the regions and divided in the view of the EU. In addition, President Václav Klaus was an outspoken opponent of the new EU Treaty, the so-called Lisbon Treaty. The government was reshaped in January, when the Christian Democrats’ mutilated leaders left the coalition and three more ministers left. Among them was the Minister of Health, who received harsh criticism for the introduction of patient fees for doctor’s visits. The Chamber of Deputies approved the Lisbon Treaty in February, but then again stood the Senate’s vote and the President’s signature. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for abbreviation EZ which stands for the nation of Czech Republic.
In March, Mirek Topolánek’s bourgeois coalition was defeated by the left opposition and independent members in a vote of no confidence in Parliament. Thus, the EU Presidency was without a regular government. In May, the Czech Republic was given a transitional government led by economic expert Jan Fischer, who like many of the ministers was partyless. However, Fischer’s and a few other new ministers’ past in the old Czechoslovak Communist Party sparked debate.
The Senate approved the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in May, but President Klaus declared that he would wait to sign the treaty until Ireland held its new referendum. The new government under Fischer struggled with cuts to try to reduce the budget deficit from 7.5 to 5.2 percent. Following a threat of resignation, Fischer was approved in Parliament in September for the planned austerity and tax increases. New elections had been announced until October but were postponed indefinitely following a decision in the Constitutional Court. A settlement between the parties to place the elections in November was halted by the left parties, which according to critics would benefit from a later election if the financial difficulties continued.
When the Irish people voted in favor of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in October, Czech President Klaus still refused to sign it. Furthermore, a number of Czech senators asked the country’s constitutional court to re-examine whether the EU’s new treaty violated the Czech Constitution. President Klaus also requested that the Treaty be exempted by guaranteeing that confiscated property could not be recovered by Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. The Swedish EU President Fredrik Reinfeldt was dismissive. Prime Minister Fischer tried to mediate between his own president and the Union, and at an EU summit in late October, the Czech Republic got its exception. When the Constitutional Court declared that the Lisbon Treaty did not violate the Czech Constitution,
The US announced in the fall that plans for an American robotic shield in the Czech Republic and Poland were scrapped in favor of a mobile missile defense. The country’s president Klaus explained that the message did not impair the country’s relations with the United States.
Prague
History
Prague, earliest mentioned 928, arose at a wad (Czech prah) over Vltava by a number of smaller communities around, among other things. the strongholds of Vyšehrad and Hradčany on both sides of the river were merged. Hradčany, located high on the left side of the river (Malá Strana), was expanded in the 13th century to the residence of the Bohemian kings. In 973, Prague became the bishop’s seat, and a precursor to the present St. Veitsdom was erected next to Hradčany. Opposite the right bank was another community, Staré Město, which grew among other things. by immigration of German, French and Jewish merchants and craftsmen.
During Charles IV, King of Bohemia 1347–78 and German-Roman Emperor 1355–78, Prague experienced a prosperous period, when a new district, Nové Město, was built south of Staré Město and the city under the influence of French building art received its present Gothic touch. In 1344, Prague had become the archdiocese, and in 1348 Charles IV had the first German university built north of the Alps. There, Jan Hus worked, and there in 1419 the first defenestration in Prague triggered the devastating Hushite war devastating the city of Prague. The German-Czech contradiction which was a motive in these had already in 1409 led the German professors and students to leave the university and took refuge in Leipzig.
By the second defense of Prague in 1618, the Thirty Years War was triggered, which hit Prague hard by looting and destruction. A Swedish army conquered Malá Strana and Hradčany in 1648 and carried away valuable art treasures, among other things. Codex argenteus (Silver Bible) and Devil’s Bible. During the 19th century Prague became thanks to nearby coal and iron ore deposits and the railway to Vienna (1845) the industrial hub of Bohemia. In 1848, Prague became the center of the failed Czech Revolution (compare the February Revolution).
Prague became the capital of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and has also lately been the scene of crucial events in the country’s history such as the Prague Cup in 1948, the Prague Spring 1968 and the transition to democracy 1989-90. Prague has been the capital of the Czech Republic since 1993.
In Prague, on May 30, 1635, a peace treaty was signed between Emperor Ferdinand II and Elector Johan Georg I of Saxony with the aim of restoring national peace and, in an emergency with arms power, forcing the Swedish and French occupation troops to leave Germany. For this purpose, a national army under imperial command would be organized. Peace was supported by most German Protestant states, including Brandenburg. Sweden’s position weakened, and a new stage in the thirty-year war, the French-Swedish, began.
On August 23, 1866, a peace treaty was concluded in Prague between Prussia and Austria, whereby Austria accepted the dissolution of the German Confederation and the new order which Prussia intended to implement north of Main. Furthermore, Prussia Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, which together with Austria was conquered from Denmark in 1864. were granted the Treaty, which stipulated that Northern Schleswig would be united with Denmark if a majority of the population in a forthcoming referendum so desired. However, such a thing never came to fruition.
Prague was occupied by German troops in March 1939. Between October 6, 1941 and March 16, 1945, over 46,000 of Prague’s Jews were deported to tillódź, Minsk and Theresienstadt; About 11,000 Jews survived the war in Prague. Struggles were fought in the city in May 1945, but it escaped as one of the few major cities in Central Europe of widespread destruction during World War II.