Why are the Czechs striking?

Around one million Czechs went on strike yesterday in protest against the government's reform policy. The liberal Slovakian newspaper Sme asks why Slovakia was spared similar strikes when it introduced much more sweeping reforms: "The problem with the Czech reforms is that rather than solving acute economic and social crises, they are meant to prevent such crises from happening in the future. The Czechs live quite well and fail to see why they should tighten their belts. Things were different in Slovakia at the end of the Meciar government, when the country was down for the count and many saw that something had to be done. ... Perhaps the major problem with the Czech reforms is that the country is not faring poorly enough."

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