Word: slovakia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...expressed as resentment of a "big brother" arrogance on the part of the Czechs. But it also reflects the Prague government's refusal to keep subsidizing such Slovak heavy industries as the aluminum plant in the town of Ziad Nad Hronom, an antiquated, pollution-belching monster. Whether an independent Slovakia can keep such industries going is questionable. Unemployment in Slovakia is already 12%, four times the Czech rate, and it has been held to that level only with the aid of heavy subsidies coming from Prague. But having threatened to secede and been told, in effect, "O.K. -- goodbye," the Slovaks...
...would cut them off from some $300 million in annual subsidies from the Czechoslovak federal government. Many Czechs react to the prospect of losing the Slovaks by thinking 1) How sad and 2) Why not? A breakup might cause anxieties among the 600,000 ethnic Hungarians who live in Slovakia but would not result in anything like the savage violence in the Balkans. The greatest danger to the Czechs is that a breakup might cause outside investors to pull back some of the billions of dollars now heading through the pipeline toward Czech projects...
When the "velvet revolution" brought democracy to his country in 1989, Vaclav Havel hoped a strong and unified Czechoslovakia would help anchor a peaceful postcommunist Central Europe. Last week Havel's vision finally faded when Slovakia's parliament split the country by declaring its sovereignty. Moments later Havel stepped down as President of Czechoslovakia, giving up a long struggle to broker a federal power-sharing agreement. He may well be the leading candidate when the separate Czech Republic establishes the new office of president...
Though he said he agreed to the split "with a heavy heart," it was Klaus who pushed for resolution of the talks in the interest of limiting economic damage caused by continued uncertainty. Meciar insisted that Slovakia, the eastern third of Czechoslovakia, could be an "international subject" on its own while remaining part of a loose confederation with the Czech republic. To Klaus that sounded like neither fish nor fowl. With the strong federation he sought out of reach, he pushed for a clean split -- even as Meciar suggested that the pact "still does not mean...
...many Slovaks resent the power of Prague and in particular Klaus' hard- nosed market policies, most did not want an outright split. The prospect of a separate Slovakian budget for 1993 could give form to those doubts: only 13% of last year's foreign investment to Czechoslovakia went to Slovakia, where unemployment has burgeoned to almost...