System of government:

The Czech Republic is a democratic state. Its government is divided into three branches – the legislative, represented by the Parliament, the executive, represented by president and the government, and the judicial, represented by courts. Our Parliament, according to constitution, consists of two chambers – the Chamber of Deputies (200 deputies, served for four years) and the Senate (81 senators, every two years, one third of the Senators is renewed). Elections are public, secret, democratic, equal, direct and universal. Every body, who is above 18 and who is Czech nationality can take part in them. The parliament makes a bill, but it must be approved by government and signed by the head of the president, before it became a law. The president is elected every five years by Parliament and he can serve only for two terms in a row. Our contemporary president is Václav Havel. He represents the country abroad, he is the commander-in-chief of the army, has right to veto or refuse a bill, can declare amnesty, call general election and makes appointments of all the members of the government. The leader of the winning party became the Prime Minister. The government is composed of the premier, the vice-premier and the ministers. There are many ministries, headed by ministers, eg. Interior, Foreign Affairs, Defence, Justice, Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, Finance, Transport, Labour and Social Affairs, Education, Culture and Health. The judicial power is divided into a system of courts. There is Constitutional court and the Supreme Court, which are at the highest level and they go down to region and district courts. In elections the citizens can choose from a variety of political parties from three main groups – the left wing, moderate and right wing. Our contemporary parts are: Civic Democratic Party, the Civic Democratic Union, the Christian Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Social Union, Left Block, Czech-Moravian Communist Party,… Our national anthem is called Kde domov můj? (Where is my home?). Our flag consists of three colours, red, blue and white. The red is at the bottom, the white is at the top and the blue makes a triangle at the left side.

b) Enquiries I.