Veteran Zeman wins last big battle in Czech presidential vote January 30, 2018 Source: Reuters / www.reuters.com / By Jan Lopatka / PRAGUE (Reuters) – Milos Zeman, the longest-standing figure in Czech post-communist politics, won a final major battle on Saturday, showing off his strong political instincts to secure a second presidential term. Zeman, 73, bet on a populist anti-immigration stance and sniping …
‘We must be co-creators of a prosperous state’ January 20, 2018 Source: Nigerian Tribune / www.tribuneonlineng.com / For Debo Adesina, Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian group of Newspapers, is too self-effacing. He rarely talks about himself and keeps a very low profile. As ‘an aspiring servant’ (he dreads being called a politician), little has changed. Unless it is about ideas for development, …
Zeman favorite to win 2nd term in Czech presidential vote January 15, 2018 Source: Tampa Bay Times / www.tampabay.com / PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic’s controversy-courting president is seeking re-election this month in what will be the country’s second election in which voters, instead of lawmakers, pick the person to fill the office. Milos Zeman was elected to the largely ceremonial post …
Czech voters to give verdict on president’s anti-immigrant populism January 15, 2018 Source: The Guardian / www.theguardian.com / By Robert Tait / Jiří Drahoš, main challenger to incumbent Miloš Zeman, pledges to ensure that country will face the west if he wins poll on Friday The Czech president, Miloš Zeman, has been accused of promoting a climate of “vulgarity, incompetence and corruption” …
Embracing Iranian uprising January 8, 2018 Source: Thewhig.com / www.thewhig.com / By Geoffrey Johnston / Iran is a stinking torture state run by a theocratic regime that maintains its weakening grip on power through the barrel of a gun and organized violence. When Iran’s 2009 elections were stolen by Islamic hardliners, ordinary Iranians took to the …
Prague Spring: dream for ‘human’ socialism crushed January 4, 2018 Source: Yahoo! / www.yahoo.com / By Karinne DELORME / Paris (AFP) – The Prague Spring 50 years ago sought to introduce “Socialism with a human face” in then communist Czechoslovakia but was crushed by Soviet tanks seven months later. Here is an account of how it unfolded: Related Searches Prague …
E.J. Dionne Jr.: Praying for democracy December 31, 2017 Source: The Oregonian / www.oregonlive.com / By E.J. Dionne JR. / My New Year’s wish is for the health and resurgence of democracy. What follows is a slightly edited version of a morning prayer I offered last month at the Appleton Chapel of the Memorial Church at Harvard University. …
London Challenged Prague Over the Dissolution of NATO December 31, 2017 Source: Sputnik / www.sputniknews.com / By Nikolai Gorshkov / British government papers from the early 1990s reveal the leadership’s alarm at the “strong neutralist views” of the post-Communist leaders of Czechoslovakia, who advocated the dissolution of NATO. The papers have just been released by the National Archives in London. In …
When Václav Havel allied himself with the hairy musicians December 9, 2017 Source: Radio Praha / www.radio.cz / By Chris Johnstone / Václav Havel has been the subject of many books and quite a few have been devoted to the so-called Czechoslovak underground, the cultural movement which above all in music but also through literature and art ignored the desires and instructions …
The Next NATO Ally Russia Is Trying to Disrupt December 3, 2017 Source: The Daily Beast / www.thedailybeast.com / By Anna Nemtsova / As Czechs lose sight of the freedoms and benefits they won as part of the EU, Kremlin boosters step up their activities—and some are at the top of government. Roman Maca is a big guy. He stands about 6-foot-6 …
Czechs to invoke spirit of ’89 in rallies to defend democracy November 20, 2017 Source: The Irish Times / www.irishtimes.com / By Daniel McLaughlin / Tens of thousands of Czechs are expected to rally in Prague and other cities on Friday to commemorate the 1989 Velvet Revolution, and to warn that populism and xenophobia threaten democracy in their country and around the region. Many …
The Czech Republic’s anti-Havel November 18, 2017 Source: POLITICO / www.politico.eu / By Siegfried Mortkowitz / President Miloš Zeman ‘says what people want to hear, the way they want to hear it’ — just like Donald Trump. PRAGUE — He’s brash, provocative and blatantly politically incorrect. He recently called 90 percent of Czech Roma “unadaptable” and lazy, …
Does protest really work in cosy democracies? November 2, 2017 Source: The London School of Economics and Political Science / www.lse.ac.uk / By Steve Crawshaw / Does protest work? And is it more effective when it takes places in countries ruled by repressive regimes or those with democratically elected governments? Steve Crawshaw writes that if we think nothing will change, …
The Czechs’ Clear Choice: A Future for the Young With Europe, or Nostalgia and Dependence on Putin January 17, 2018 Source: Daily Beast / www.thedailybeast.com / By Anna Nemtsova / Jiri Drahos, the pro-Europe challenger to incumbent president and Putin crony Milos Zeman, looks like he just might win the second-round runoff. RomanNOVE VESELI, Czech Republic—On the day of the first round in this country’s presidential election, Linda Jamborova, a …
Belfast-bound Joan Baez tells of her lifetime as a singer and political activist December 31, 2017 Source: The Irish News / www.irishnews.com / By Jenny Lee / Folk singer Joan Baez was one of the major musical figures behind social justice movements in the 1960s. Fifty years later the singer, songwriter and activist is still passionate about the causes she embraces and will return to Ireland …