The Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a state situated in Central Europe. It occupies an area over 78,000 sq kilometers and has about 10,3 million inhabitants.

The Czech Republic borders on Slovakia in the east, on Poland in the north, on Germany in the west, and on Austria in the south.

Our state has a varied landscape. Along the borders there stretch mountain ranges – the Beskydy mountains, the Jizerské mountains, the Giant mountains, the Ore mountains, the Šumava mountains … The highest peak is Sněžka in the Giant mountains. In the middle of the country there is situated the Bohemian-Moravian Highland.

Fertile lowlands can be found in the valleys of big rivers – the Vltava, the Elbe (flowing into the North Sea), the Oder (Baltic Sea) and the Morava (Danube, Black Sea). Our country is rich in rivers. The longest river is the Vltava. It has tributaries – for example from the west it is the Berounka and from the east it is the Sázava. Very important river is the Labe (Elbe). It springs in the Czech republic and it flows to Germany.

The climate is mostly continental, the warmest area is in South Moravia.

One of our most important raw materials is coal. It is to be found in coal basins in Ostrava, Kladno, North Bohemia or Sokolov. The Czech Republic is traditionally an industrial country (engineering, chemical industry, metallurgy, food industry or textile industry).

We have many beautiful places of interest:

• Primeval Forest of Boubín
• Moravian Karst with beautiful grottos where there are all kinds of stalactites, and with Macocha abyss.
• The south of Bohemia is famous for its lakes – for example the biggest ones are Svět and Rožmberk.
• Our country is very rich in castles and chateaus. Some of them are in a very good state. The jewel among them is the Karlštejn castle. A famous chateau is Hluboká, connected with Schwarzenberg house.
• There are some monuments in the list of UNESCO – historic centre of Prague and Český Krumlov; the church Zelená hora in Žďár nad Sázavou (famous for its unique baroque architecture of Giovanni Santini); the village Holašovice in the south.
• A big attraction for the tourist is the spa region in West Bohemia. It is a spa triangle consisting of Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně. They are famous for mineral springs, beautiful architecture, nice surrounding, and also typical spa wafers.
• The south of Moravia is famous for its vineyards and vintages in September.
• There are also held some events all over the country which are worth seeing – film festival in Karlovy Vary, Shakespeare Summer Days in Prague, revolving auditorium in Český Krumlov. People can visit many jousting performances in some castles.

The Czech Republic was created on the 1^st January 1993 after the split-up of the Czechoslovak federative republic. There had to be created our own currency (Czech crown) – monetary reform. There was started the economic reform – the large-scale and then the small-scale privatization.

We have our own president. He or she is elected every 5 years. Since the very beginning there has been Mr. Václav Havel whose term finishes on the 15.1.2003 and there will be elected a new president.

There was adopted our Constitution. According to the Constitution our law making body – Parliament – consists of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Our new president will be elected in this Chamber of deputies. But the public opinion is that we should have possibility of direct presidential election.

At the very beginning there were many political parties on the scene. Their numbers has been reduced during the years. Some political parties ceased to exist (Civic Democratic Alliance). The most important party of these days is Social Democratic Party headed by Mr. Spidla. This party won the last general election in June 2002. That is why Mr. Spidla is the Prime Minister. Social Democrats rule (govern) in the coalition with the Union of Freedom and the Czech People’s Party. In the opposition there is Civic Democratic Party (it’s a right-wink party) and Communist Party.

Since 1999 we have been a member of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). In June 2004 if the referendum finishes positively we’ll become a member of EU.

In all those years we have to face transformation problems. Some of the difficulties are:

• rising unemployment
• high crime
• corruption, bribery
• tax evasions
• rising inflation
• mafias
• not fully effective judicial reform (everything is very slow)

But there are also positive sides:

• more free travelling – travelling without visa, studying or working abroad
• much wide choice of goods
• better access to information technologies
• becoming a valuable part of European structures

The Czech Republic consists of 3 parts: Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. All together have 10 million inhabitants. Unfortunately not all the regions of the country have been developed at the same speed. The least developed areas are those of Silesia and the north of Bohemia. It’s a result of the previous situation because these were the centers of heavy industry, steel industry and mining. All these industries are being reduced or even cancelled and this procedure produce very high unemployment.

We have to orientate our industry towards the West, because we left the position on the Russian market.

Patron: St. Wenceslas

National tree: lime-tree

Emblem: Czech Lion

Anthem: “Where Is My Homeland”