Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
yearafterhisfirstwife,Olga,diedofcancer,wasfrowneduponbymany.Andhisverypublic
fall-out with his sister-in-law, Olga Havlová, over the family inheritance of the multimillion-
crown Lucerna complex in Prague, didn't do his reputation any favours either.
Oneofthebiggestproblemstoemergeinthe1990swastheissueof
Czechracismtowards
the Romany minority
within the country. Matters came to a head in 1999 over the planned
building of a wall to separate Romanies and non-Romanies in the north Bohemian city of
ÚstínadLabem
. The central government, under pressure from the EU, condemned the con-
struction of the wall, and eventually the local council rehoused the white Czechs elsewhere.
Since EU accession in 2004, many Romany have left the country, but those who remain still
face widespread racism.
EU accession and beyond
InJune2003,just55percentofthepopulationturnedouttovoteinthe
EUreferendum
,with
77 percent voting in favour of joining. On May 1, 2004, the Czech Republic formally joined
theEU,alongwithnineotheraccessionstates.Despitetheirgrowingcynicism,Czechsgenu-
inely celebrated their entry into the EU; for many, it was the culmination of everything that
had been fought for in 1968 and 1989, a final exorcism of the enforced isolation of the Com-
munist period.
EU accession was fairly positive for the Czechs. Their
economy
held up well, so there was
no great flight of labour from the country as there was in Poland. Despite the global finan-
cial crisis, the conservative Czech financial system remained relatively healthy. If anything,
the country suffered from the crown being consistently overvalued, leading to a drop in the
number of tourists in 2009 for the first time in twenty years. Numbers have since recovered,
however, and the mini-devaluation of the crown by the Czech Central Bank in late 2013 may
see even more visitors arriving in the capital in future years. Since accession, following the
Europeantrend,Czechs havebecomedisillusioned withtheEU;arecordlow18.2percentof
voters bothered to turn out for the May 2014 elections to the European Parliament.
In recent years weak coalition governments returned by a divided and apathetic electorate,
political scandal, deep-rooted high-level corruption and a disappointingly sluggish economy,
especially when it comes to unemployment, have cast many a cloud over the country. In
March 2013, Klaus having served the maximum ten years in office,
Miloš Zeman
made a
dramatic return to the political scene when he became the first Czech president to be elected
in a popular vote.
Despite the wider country's economic performance, Prague remains an attractive prospect
for any young Czech looking to make it big. As more people move in from the sticks, the
difference between Czech town and Czech country is likely to grow even further. Prague is
the place to be, but it remains to be seen just how much the rest of the Czech Republic will
suffer from having such a dominant capital.
