IT'S A TOUGH CALL. Much like this year's US presidential primaries, the outcome of the race for the Czech presidency seems to be difficult, if not impossible to predict.
The incumbent head of state Václav Klaus still leads the public opinion polls, but his lead has dwindled into an insignificant margin over the last couple of weeks as the campaign of his challenger Jan Švejnar keeps gaining momentum.
Last Saturday Mr. Švejnar, a long-timed resident of the United States where he teaches economics at the University of Michigan, announced he is ready to give up his US citizenship in case he gets elected.
As he explained, his decision, inspired by series of meetings with common folk across the country, aims to dispel any doubts people may have about his loyalty and readiness to serve first and foremost the Czech Republic.
It remains to be seen whether this announcement will secure him enough votes when the members of the two houses of the Czech Parliament meet on February 8 to elect the head of state. So far, the lawmakers seem to be split between the two candidates.
Their upcoming debate on the floor of the Czech Senate next Tuesday in front of the members of the social democratic faction, which is to be televised across the nation, may help the MPs make up their mind.
But since it increasingly looks like the ballot will be secret, contrary to the wishes of the public, the lawmakers will only have their conscience to account to, which, as some people (including most of the politicians) argue, is the best guarantee of a free vote. Others say it opens floodgates for political horse-trading and corruption.
One of the most speculated of instances of the former is the alleged deal between the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which fully backs Václav Klaus, its founder and chairman emeritus, and the Christian Democratic Party (KDU-ČSL), its junior coalition partner, which recently made a "non-binding" recommendation to its lawmakers to support Mr. Klaus.
The rumor has it that ChrisDems' support was bought by the CivDems, courtesy of the recently passed draft bill on the financial settlement between the state and the church(es).
Even if the rumor is no more than that, the fact that the issue, which has been handled like a hot potato by a succession of the post-communist governments, was finally and rather miraculously resolved just in time for the presidential election, quite understandably invites all kinds of speculations.
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In the meantime, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first head of state of the independent Czech Republic Václav Havel continues to be hospitalized with a trachea infection and a heart arrhythmia, which is why he missed the pre-premiere of a feature documentary film in which he is the main star.
Doctors should announce today (Monday) whether he can leave the hospital.
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Speaking of hospitals, the infamous case of the so-caled Heparin Killer reached the court last week.
In the dock is a nurse who killed seven patients and attempted to murder ten more in a hospital in the city of Havlíčkův Brod by injecting them with anticoagulant substance known as heparin, excessive doses of which can cause internal bleeding and become lethal.
In his chilling appearance the defendant claimed voices in his head told him to do what he did. "I did not intend to kill them. I just wanted some action. I enjoyed the work," he told the judge. The trial is expected to continue until the end of February.
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Slightly more amusing and a great deal more harmless (if you were actually not the one who got cheated) case appeared at the Regional Court in Brno last week, where a group of conmen explained how they sold over 150 forged pieces of art for millions of Czech crowns.
Only the alleged gang-leader was sent to jail, the rest were either acquitted or received suspended sentences, among them a self-taught painter Libor Prášil, whose paintings were described as "a work of genius" by some of the experts familiar with the case.
Prášil claimed that the spirit of Jan Zrzavý, the 20th century Czech master often stopped by in his studio to help him create the 31 artworks, later sold as the supposedly unknown pieces made by Zrzavý.
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The 19-year old singer and songwriter Markéta Irglová, who shot to fame after an unexpected success of the Irish musical movie Once at a festival circuit, was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Song last week.
The trouble is, as Tyden.cz reported shortly afterwards, that the song Falling Slowly which Irglová and her acting partner Glen Hansard (of the Irish group Frames) got nominated for was performed as early as 2002 and appeared in another film before Once, thus breaking the rules of not only Academy Awards for film, but also for music (Grammys), where the couple was nominated for the song and the entire soundtrack too.
But as Markéta's father and manager Marek Irgl put it in an interview for Aktuálně.cz, this is ultimately a problem for the Academy, not the artists who had nothing to do with the nominations in the first place.
