I.

Introduction

Czech Republic, republic comprising the historic regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and part of Silesia, in central Europe, bordered on the north by Poland, on the east by Slovakia, on the south by Austria, and on the west and north by Germany. Formerly parts of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia emerged as independent republics on January 1, 1993. The Czech Republic has an area of 78,864 sq km (30,450 sq mi). Prague (Czech, Praha) is the capital and largest city.

II.

Land and Resources

The Czech Republic rests on elevated tablelands, known as the Bohemian Plateau, which stretch west to the German border and east to Slovakia. Mountains, including the Bohemian, Sudety, and Carpathian ranges, rise along the plateau’s edges, primarily to the north and east. The country’s highest point is Sněžka, which rises 1,602 m (5,256 ft) in the Sudety Mountains. The lowest point is the River Elbe, which at the border with Germany is 117 m (384 ft) above sea level. The central part of the Czech Republic is made up of the Bohemian Basin and the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands; the Moravian Lowlands lie to the east. These regions contain the republic’s most fertile soils. The central part of the plateau consists primarily of rolling hills, farmland, and fertile river valleys. The Bohemian Forest forms the south-western border with Germany.

A.

Rivers and Lakes

The republic’s primary rivers include the Elbe, Vltava, Morava, Neisse, and Oder. Other important streams include the Jizera, Ohre, Beca, Sázava, Svratka, and Luznice. Lakes are mostly small, some of the largest being man-made reservoirs.

B.

Climate

The interior plateau areas of the republic have a primarily continental temperate climate with warm summers and cold winters. The mountainous areas endure harsher winters and receive heavy rainfall. The southern areas of the republic near the border with Austria have hot summers and milder winters. The average temperature in Prague in January is -3° C (27° F), in July, 18° C (64° F). The average annual precipitation is 410 mm (16 in) in Prague, and 550 mm (22 in) in Brno.

C.

Natural Resources

The Czech Republic has relatively poor mineral resources. Coal is the most common and profitable natural resource, particularly brown coal and lignite. Increased excavation and use of coal have wreaked environmental havoc on air and water quality, which has subsequently affected the health of the populace. Magnesite, iron ore, and a few non-metallic minerals are also common in parts of the republic. There are sizeable uranium deposits and smaller mercury, antimony, and tin deposits in the Ore Mountains (part of the Bohemian Mountains).

D.

Plants and Animals

Spruce and fir trees are the most common trees in the republic’s forests, particularly at higher elevations, while mixed forests of oak, ash, and maple are characteristic in lower zones. The uncultivated lowlands are covered mostly with clover, reeds, and broom grass. Wildlife is becoming scarce because of pollution and deforestation, but wolf, brown bear, wild boar, wildcat, white eagle, chamois, and fox are found in the mountainous Carpathian region.

E.

Environmental Concerns

The Czech Republic operates four nuclear reactors but produces most of its energy by burning domestic coal. Much of the coal burned is low quality with a high ash and sulphur content, producing high levels of air pollution. Partly as a result of this, the incidence of illnesses doubled in Prague between 1975 and 1990.

Forests in the Czech Republic are among the most seriously affected by acid rain in all of Europe—about 57 per cent had been damaged by air pollution by the mid-1980s. Fertilizer applications are uncontrolled; in some areas of the country the nitrate content is so high that the water is considered unsafe for human consumption.

Within the Czech Republic about 3,500 plant species and 60,000 animal species are known, including invertebrates. There are three national parks and about 190 other reserves and specially protected sites and the government has ambitious plans to increase the extent of the system. Five biosphere reserves have been designated under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere Program at Krivoklátsko (1977), Trebon Basin (1977), Palava (1986), Sumava (1990), and Bílé Karpathy; ten sites have been declared under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

III.

Population

The population of the Czech Republic is predominantly Czech, or Bohemian. Indeed, the creation of the republic in 1992-1993 was partly justified by supposed ethnic tensions with the Czechs’ eastern neighbours, the Slovaks, though there are few historical cases of severe ethnic disputes. (The Moravians are often classed as Czech, though they consider themselves an independent group.) The Czechs are descended from Slavic tribes who appeared in Bohemia and Moravia in the 5th century ad and drove the Avars out of the region in the 7th century. Czechs constitute 81.2 per cent (1991 census figures) of the population of the Czech Republic. Moravians constitute 13.2 per cent, Slovaks 3.1 per cent, and 2.5 per cent of the population is made up of other ethnic groups, including Germans, Roma (Gypsies), Poles, and Hungarians. One formerly significant ethnic group now no longer in evidence is the once sizeable Jewish population of the region. Individuals emigrated or were killed by occupying German forces prior to and during World War II.

A.

Population Characteristics

The Czech Republic has a population of 10,220,911 (2008 estimate). Average population density is 132 people per sq km (343 people per sq mi). Around 75 per cent of the republic’s population is urban (2005 estimate). Population is concentrated chiefly in the north and east, with the south-western areas towards the southern German and Austrian borders being relatively sparsely settled.

B.

Political Divisions

The country is divided into 14 regions, including the separate capital district of Prague. They are Carlsbad, Central Bohemia, Hradec Králové, Liberec, Moravia-Silesia, Olomouc, Pardubice, Plzen, Prague, South Bohemia, South Moravia, Ústí nad Labem, Vysocina, and Zlín.

C.

Principal Cities

The capital city and administrative district of Prague has a population of 1,170,000 (2003 estimate). It is placed more or less centrally in the country, and is the nexus of most major transport routes. The historic centre of Prague, built between the 11th and 18th centuries, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1992. The second-largest city, Brno, population 376,172 (2003 estimate), in southern Moravia, has a long tradition of cultural importance. Other major Czech cities and their populations include Ostrava, 316,744 (2003 estimate), Plzeň, 165,259 (2003 estimate), Olomouc, 102,607 (2003 estimate), Liberec, 99,102 (2003 estimate), and Hradec Králové, 97,155 (2003 estimate).

D.

Religion

Most Czechs (65 per cent) practise some form of Christianity, and about 43 per cent are Roman Catholics. Other major denominations include Protestantism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. There is still a small Jewish community centred on Prague.

E.

Language

The Czech Republic’s official language is Czech, which is closely related to Slovak (both use the Roman rather than the Cyrillic alphabet) and belongs to the Western Slavic sub-group of the Indo-European language family. Czech is spoken by almost all of the population. Carpathian Romani, an Indo-Iranian language, is a mother tongue for a minority group. Smaller minorities exist that speak Standard German, Polish, Bavarian, Lower Silesian, or Sinte Romani as a mother tongue.

F.

Education

Education in the Czech Republic is compulsory for children of ages 6 to 16. Although secondary education, during which students receive more specialized training, is optional, a majority of Czech students opt to study beyond elementary school. In 2000, 630,680 primary pupils attended some 4,889 primary schools, and 1,004,130 secondary pupils attended some 1,726 secondary and vocational schools. The republic has many institutes of higher learning: among them are Charles University in Prague, which was founded in 1348 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and is one of the oldest and most famous universities in Europe; Palacký University (1566) in Olomouc; and Masaryk University (formerly J. E. Purkynè University, 1919) in Brno. Tuition fees for university students were introduced in 1995. In 2001–2002 there were 284,485 students in higher education.

G.

Culture

Germanic, Jewish, and Czech cultures have combined through centuries of history in what is now the Czech Republic. What resulted was a rich and diverse culture with distinct art, music, and literature. As a major city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Prague was especially important in European culture. Indigenous Czech literature has a long and distinguished pedigree, with notable recent figures including Jaroslav Hašek and Karel Čapek. The new republic’s first president, Václav Havel, was a famed playwright and leader in the Czech intellectual world before entering politics, while the Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1984.

Composers such as Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, Leoš Janáček, and Bohuslav Martinů helped make the Czech contribution to 19th- and 20th-century classical music especially important, while significant modern Czech painters included Alphonse Mucha and František Kupka. Important German-speaking Jewish cultural figures who were also native-born Czech include the composer Gustav Mahler and the novelist Franz Kafka.

The Czech Republic retained the largest libraries and document and treasure collections from the former Czechoslovakia. In particular, the National Museum and its library, the library of the Charles University, and the library of the Czech Republic all have extensive collections. In addition, the Premonstratensian Monastery of Strahov in Prague is well known for its collection of notable documents and treasures.

The country has 12 listed World Heritage Sites. They include the historical centres of Prague (inscribed in 1992), Ceský Krumlov (1992), and Telč (1992). Also of note are the Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora (1994); the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec in Kutná Hora (1996); Litomyšl Castle (1999); the Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape (1996); Holašovice Historical Village Reservation (1998); the Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž (1998); Holy Trinity Column at Olomouc (2000); the Tugendhat Villa in Brno (2001), designed by Ludwig Mies van de Rohe in the International Style; and the Jewish Quarter and St Procopius’ Basilica in Třebíč (2003).

IV.

Economy

The Czech government continued the economic reforms begun by its predecessor, the government of Czechoslovakia, following the Czech Republic’s separation from Slovakia. This can be attributed to the continuity in the Czech leadership. The primary economic measures for creating a market-based economy (privatization, development of infrastructure, and industrial restructuring) remained at the forefront of economic stabilization. In order to make the transition smoother, the Czech and Slovak governments agreed to maintain a common currency and a customs union, as well as an open border. While the customs union and open border were maintained at first, the two republics soon began using separate currencies. Trade between the two republics fell by one third by mid-1993, and trade with other countries also fell, despite an agreement made with Poland and Hungary to set up a free-trade zone. The Czech Republic was granted membership of the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development following separation from Slovakia.

Upon separation, the Czech government instituted tax reform that was meant to improve tax-collection methods. In January 1993 the government also introduced a value-added tax designed to widen the tax base and shift the tax burden away from enterprises. As expected, the tax led to increases in the prices of basic goods and some inflation. In order to encourage foreign investment, the Czech government also sponsored a special agency charged with acquainting foreign businesses with Czech business practices, and matching up foreign and Czech companies. Foreign investment into the republic increased significantly, with almost 10,600 joint ventures operating by mid-1993. However, by 1997 there were signs that the Czech economy was no longer following its former smooth transition to full free-market status, with a currency crisis in May and a political scandal linked to privatization in November.

The Czech economy is split between the trade and service sector and the manufacturing and industry sector, which together account for 95 per cent of all employment (57 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively). The annual gross national product (GNP) of the Czech Republic in 2004 was US$93,289 million (World Bank estimate), or US$12,790 per capita. The annual national budget in 2006 included revenues of US$43,753 million and expenditure of US$50,704 million.

A.

Agriculture and Forestry

The Czech Republic boasts in general far more advanced agriculture than most of the other former Communist states in Europe, though yields are still mostly below those in Western Europe. After a period of decline, agricultural output in 1995 showed an improvement for the first time in four years. Dissolution of former state farms and the settlement of restitution claims have both played an important part in the wide-ranging land reform measures that have been implemented. By 1995 over 98 per cent of agricultural land was operated by the private sector, either by means of leaseholds granted by the Land Fund, or by outright ownership. In 2005 there were 3 million hectares (8 million acres) of arable land under cultivation. The principal crops grown are wheat, barley, maize, rye, sugar beet, and potatoes. Agricultural production (in tonnes) in 2006 included 3.51 million, wheat; 3 million, sugar beet; 2 million, barley; 0.69 million, potatoes; 74,811, rye; and 606,366, maize. Livestock in 2006 included some 2.84 million pigs, 1.37 million cattle, 148,412 sheep, and 15.6 million poultry birds.

The Czech Republic has considerable forest reserves, although these have been heavily damaged in recent years by acid rain from the country’s coal-burning power plants. An extensive reforestation programme is under way. Total roundwood production in 2006 was about 17.7 million cu m (624 million cu ft).

B.

Mining

Mining in the Czech Republic concentrates on the country’s chief mineral resources, coal and iron. The main coalfields are located at Chomutov, Most, Karlovy Vary, Ostrava, Plzeň, and Kladno. Coal production in 2003 amounted to around 63.9 million tonnes. In the early 1990s about 111,000 tonnes of iron ore was produced annually.

C.

Manufacturing

The Czech provinces were historically the major industrial belt of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Czechoslovakia was known between the two world wars as a centre of light industry. Major manufacturing industries now include metallurgy, machinery, transport equipment, and other forms of engineering. The Škoda car company is an important producer with a wide European market. Other major manufactures include chemicals and food products. Diversification since the demise of Communism in Czechoslovakia has included a revival in traditional craft-based industries, such as footwear, glass, and textiles.

D.

Tourism

Tourism has recently become a major source of trade and employment in the Czech Republic, as the republic’s ski resorts, spas, and Baroque architecture are a strong draw; this area of the Czech economy is growing after the fall of Communism. Prague, which suffered little of the war damage endured by neighbouring capitals such as Warsaw, has become a favourite with tourists and expatriates. Around 6.44 million tourists visited the country in 2006, bringing around US$2,656 million in tourist revenues, or 4.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

E.

Energy

Most of the Czech Republic’s native energy production comes from thermal stations using national coal reserves, despite the high pollution penalty; in the early 1990s over 75 per cent of electricity was produced by such plants. Use of nuclear and hydroelectric power is increasing. In 1993 electrical output was 58.9 billion kWh.

F.

Currency and Banking

The monetary unit of the Czech Republic is the Czech koruna of 100 haler (18.16 koruna equalled US$1; early 2008). The koruna derives from the breakup of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992; both the Czech Republic and Slovakia had undertaken to maintain a common currency called the koruna (Czech, “crown”), but from February 8, 1993, each state began using different currencies. Both started out equal in value; the Slovak koruna was devalued later that year. Separation of the currencies one month after the two republics officially separated reflected ongoing tensions.

The central bank and issuing authority is the Czech National Bank (Česká Národní Banka). Private banks have operated since 1991, often on a regional basis, and by 1995 there were some 59 banks in the country. Prague is developing as a centre for financial and business services.

G.

Commerce and Trade

Prior to 1989 most Czech trade was with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and other Communist neighbours, but the Czech Republic has adjusted rapidly to subsequent changes. Major trading partners are now the countries of the European Union, especially Germany, and Austria, Poland, and Russia. In 2003 it was estimated that imports totalled US$51,239 million and exports US$48,720 million. Major imports include oil, machinery, and telecommunications equipment; major exports are coal, machinery, motor vehicles, rolling stock, footwear, and basic manufactures such as iron and steel. Czech lager beer, traditionally brewed round the historic brewing town of Plzeň, is now an important export commodity.

H.

Labour

The total active labour force in the Czech Republic numbers about 5.22 million (2006 estimate). Unemployment remains low, holding at 8.3 per cent in 2004.

I.

Transport

Czech State Railways operates a railway network of some 9,513 km (5,911 mi) as of 2005. There are 127,672 km (79,332 mi) of roads in the Czech Republic. Since the end of 1992, Czech Airlines has operated as the national carrier, replacing the former Czechoslovakian airline CSA. The principal international airports are at Prague (Ruzyně), Brno (Turany), and Ostrava (Mosnov).

J.

Communications

There are 81 major daily newspapers in the Czech Republic, enjoying a combined annual circulation of around 3 million in 1996. The chief national daily paper is Mláda Fronta Dnes. There are two national broadcasting services, Czech Television and Czech Radio, along with private national and regional stations. In 1997 there were some 8 million radios and 5.2 million television sets.

V.

Government

The Czech Republic is a parliamentary republic, governed under a constitution adopted in December 1992 in the process of the division of the former Czechoslovakia. The government of the Czech Republic retained many of the elements of the government of Czechoslovakia. Bureaux of defence and transport, however, were added to the Czech government. In addition, the Czech National Council became the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the new bicameral legislature.

A.

Executive and Legislature

A joint session of the legislature elects a president, the head of state, to a five-year term. The Czech president is commander of the armed forces, and may be elected to a second consecutive term. A Council of Ministers completes the executive branch of government. The prime minister, who is appointed by the president, recommends candidates for the Council of Ministers; the president appoints the 17 ministers from among the candidates.

The 200-member Chamber of Deputies and the 81-member Senate form the legislative branch of government. Deputies are elected to four-year terms, and senators to six-year terms, by universal adult suffrage; all Czech citizens over 18 may vote in elections. A third of the senatorial seats are contested every two years.

B.

Judiciary

The Czech Republic’s legal system includes a Constitutional Court, a Supreme Court, and various trial and appellate courts. The president appoints the 15 judges of the Constitutional Court, with the consent of the Senate. Courts are grouped into four divisions: civil, criminal, commercial, and administrative (dealing with cases against state institutions). District courts handle local judicial matters. Judicial decisions are reached by panels of three judges, rather than by Anglo-Saxon jury system.

C.

Local Government

Since Czechoslovakian administrative reform in 1990 there have been no regional governments. Seats on district bureaux are contested at local elections, which enjoy high turnouts. These raise local taxes, but often rely on central government for additional funds.

D.

Political Parties

A multi-party system of government was inherited from the previous Czechoslovakian government. The Civic Democratic Party (ODS; Občanské Demokratická Strana) in coalition with the Christian Democratic Union (KDU; Krest’anská a Demokratické Unie) emerged as the leading political party of the republic after the break-up. The Civic Democrats and several other parties formed after the splintering of the Civic Forum, the party instrumental in bringing down the Communist regime. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM; Komunistická Strana Čech a Morava), a coalition of former Communist parties, is another strong Czech political party, as is the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD; Česká Strana Sociálné Demokratická). A number of minor parties are also active, some of them regionally based.

E.

Health and Welfare

Average life expectancy at birth in the Czech Republic was 73.3 (2008 estimate) for men and 80.1 (2008 estimate) for women. There were around 31,000 doctors (1 per 279 people) and 68,800 hospital beds (1 per 114 people) in 2003. Despite the generally high standard of health care, heavily polluted urban regions are still troubled by above-average disease and mortality levels. Infant mortality in 2008 was 4 deaths per 1,000 live births.

F.

Defence

The former Czechoslovakian Armed Forces were divided into separate Czech and Slovak forces in 1993. The Czech forces, which include both 5,609 air and 16,663 ground troops and totalled 22,272 personnel in 2004, have been reduced in keeping with international treaties. Military service in the republic is compulsory and lasts 12 months; the armed forces include some 25,000 conscripts. In 2003 the Czech Republic spent US$1,871 million (2.2 per cent of its GDP) on defence.

G.

International Organizations

The Czech Republic is a member of the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), the Central European Initiative, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union (EU).

VI.

History

For the history of the Czech lands prior to 1918, see under Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For the history of Czechoslovakia between 1918 and 1992, see under this heading.

The end of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989 resulted in the disintegration of the country. Free-market reforms introduced during the immediate post-communist period tended to benefit the Czech regions more than the Slovak ones. This, and greater Slovak desire for autonomy, led to problems in the federal government. The question of how much authority the federal government should have, relative to that of the governments of the two republics, became a burning political issue. The Federal Assembly’s attempts at reaching a compromise failed, and election results in June 1992 reflected the growing split between the two republics. The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, led by Slovak nationalist leader Vladimir Mečiar, and the Civic Democratic Party, led by Czech Václav Klaus, emerged as the parties with the two largest representations in the Assembly. As Slovakia moved towards independence, Slovak deputies in parliament blocked Václav Havel’s bid for a second presidential term, and he stepped down in July. It soon became clear that no form of federal government could satisfy the desires of the two republics, despite polls that showed a majority of the country’s citizens opposed a break-up. Throughout the autumn of 1992 Czechs and Slovaks negotiated all the details for disbanding the federal government. On January 1, 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia emerged as separate independent states.

In late January 1993 the Chamber of Deputies elected Václav Havel as the Republic’s first president. Václav Klaus, formerly finance minister, headed the centre-right coalition government as prime minister. The government of the Czech Republic continued with aggressive plans for a market-based economy, seeking membership of the EU. In early 1994 the Czech government signed the Partnership for Peace agreement with Western nations, as a precursor to becoming a member of NATO.

In August 1995 the government’s Office for the Investigation of Communist Crimes issued treason charges against ex-politicians and security officials associated with the crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring. In September 1995 the Chamber of Deputies voted for the establishment of the Senate as the legislative upper house. The Czech Republic formally applied for membership of the EU in January 1996. In the general election of June 1996, Václav Klaus’s governing coalition lost its majority, and Klaus was forced to make a new coalition agreement with his principal opponents, the Social Democrats.

The central bank, the Czech National Bank, ordered the closure of the Credit Bank in August, after it incurred huge losses because of a bad lending policy, and the crisis in the banking system continued into September. A programme to stabilize the banking system was announced in October. The parties of the ruling centre-right coalition claimed victory in the elections to the Senate in the November elections, with the Civic Democratic Party taking over 49 per cent of the vote. Agreement was reached between the German and Czech governments on the text of a declaration of reconciliation, in December, and it was signed in January 1997.

A.

NATO Membership and Changes of Government

In April 1997 the republic’s diplomatic relations with Slovakia worsened abruptly after President Havel alluded to the “paranoia” of Slovak prime minister Vladimir Mečiar, in the context of NATO enlargement. In May a financial and political crisis broke when currency speculation caused a severe fall in the value of the Czech koruna and foreign investors withdrew capital, as scandals involving defrauding of both domestic and foreign investors, aided by poor government regulation and official corruption, caused a collapse of confidence in economic policy and several ministerial resignations. Unusually, President Havel intervened personally to criticize the administration of Václav Klaus and propose a change of government. Havel announced in July that he would run for a second presidential term in 1998.

Despite its domestic policy difficulties, the Czech Republic, together with Poland and Hungary, was officially invited to join NATO in July 1997, while preliminary negotiations began for eventual admission to the EU. Disastrous flooding affected around one third of the country in that same month. A scandal over funding of his Civic Democratic Party in November finally caused Prime Minister Klaus to resign in early December 1997. A caretaker government was formed under Josef Tosovsky. In June 1998, elections to the Chamber of Deputies brought in a centre-left administration under Milos Zeman in partnership with Václav Klaus, whose support had revived in the elections. Senate elections in November 1998 produced poor results for Zeman's Czech Social Democratic Party, while strengthening Klaus's Civic Democratic Party. In March 1999 the Czech Republic completed its formal entry into NATO. Relations with Slovakia improved in November 1999 when Zeman reached an agreement with Slovak prime minister Dzurinda to settle outstanding financial matters that had existed since the break-up of the former Czechoslovakia six years before. Under the deal, Prague agreed to return 4.5 tonnes of gold to Slovakia and to write off debt worth nearly US$1 billion. The two countries also agreed to withdraw all claims to shares in each other's banks.

In December 1999 thousands of people demonstrated in Prague and other major Czech towns calling for the resignation of the government and demanding fresh elections. As the country struggled with economic hardship and widespread corruption, Zeman's minority government had become deeply unpopular. Václav Klaus's Civic Democratic Party, which continued to share power with Zeman's Social Democrats, called for Cabinet changes in the wake of a critical European Union (EU) report that blamed Prague's political inertia for the slowness of Czech preparations to join the EU.

Nonetheless, the government continued the implementation of new economic and social policies in 2000. The final settlement with Slovakia, achieved in December 1999, was ratified in May 2000; it was also agreed that the customs union between the two countries would continue until one of them joins the EU.

Later in the year, two affairs dominated the Czech political scene. In September, Austrian environmentalists blocked border crossings with the republic in protest at the impending start of operations at the Temelin nuclear plant, located in the south of Bohemia. The protests continued in October, when the Temelin reactor was started up, and beyond, and the dispute temporarily threatened to block the Czech EU bid. A compromise agreement with Austria was reached in December, pending a thorough assessment of the plant, and Temelin shut down in January and again in March 2001 for repairs.

In a separate development, a controversial media affair, sparked off by a politically biased appointment at Czech Television, provoked a wide-ranging dispute over the potential politicization of media and led to a standoff between staff and management as well as to popular unrest on a scale unseen since the overthrow of Communism. The conflict, which started in December 2000, finally ended in February 2001, with a new agreement between employees and the new administration and with the passing of new media legislation.

Prime Minister Milos Zeman resigned as chairman of the Social Democrats in April and was replaced by Vladimir Špidla, who led the party to victory in the June 2002 parliamentary elections. The elections also saw a dramatic increase in the communist vote. In July, Špidla became prime minister in a new coalition government consisting of the Social Democrats and two smaller centrist parties.

Billions of dollars of damage was done to the Czech Republic and Prague in particular in the worst flooding seen in the region for 200 years. Prague’s Old Town came close to being submerged by floodwaters in August. In December, the country received its formal invitation to join the European Union; the ensuing referendum, held in June 2003, showed overwhelming support for joining the EU among those who voted. Václav Havel stood down as president in February 2003 after more than ten years in office. However, the search for a successor was long drawn out with Czech MPs failing to come up with a conclusive decision after the first two polls. Václav Klaus was elected to the post at the third attempt. In June 2003 the majority of Czech voters (77 per cent) supported the idea of EU membership in a referendum. Following this, in May 2004 the republic became a member state of the EU. The coalition that had led the country into the EU fared badly, however, in the elections to the European Parliament that followed in June. As a consequence, Špidla resigned as both prime minister and as leader of the Social Democrats. He was replaced in both posts by Stanislav Gross, who set about creating a new coalition government (it was approved in August 2004). However, Gross resigned in April 2005 after protracted arguments over his financing of a luxury property. He was replaced by Jiri Paroubek, the former regional development minister. The elections of June 2006 did little to resolve the unsettled nature of Czech politics: a hung parliament was the result with the Civic Democratic Party winning 81 of the 200 seats and the Social Democratic Party 74. Mirek Topolánek of the Civic Democrats was appointed prime minister in September but his government quickly ran into trouble and failed to survive a vote of no-confidence in October. The president reappointed Topolánek’s newly chosen government in January 2007 after failing to find favour with the previous selection in December. In February 2008 Klaus was narrowly re-elected as president after numerous rounds of voting.