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Last week’s elections in Czechoslovakia have ensured that the environmental
concerns which helped to spark off the ‘velvet revolution’ in 1989 will
be given a low priority in future. The state of the economy and the Slovak
battle for independence look certain to dominate the political scene.

The Czechs gave nearly 30 per cent of their vote to the Civic Democratic
Party headed by the federal finance minister, Vaclav Klaus. Slovaks preferred
the nationalistic Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, led by Vladmir Meciar,
who took 37 per cent of the vote in the eastern republic. The two men, who
are diametrically opposed on economic matters, share at least one characteristic:
the environment is way down their political agendas.

Even if Klaus and Meciar manage to cobble together a coalition government,
observers expect the federal environment ministry, which oversees legislation
for the entire country, to be dissolved and each republic to tackle its
own environmental problems separately.

Three years ago, environmental issues provided a rallying point for
people disaffected with the then communist government. But in last week’s
elections, many grassroots environmentalists threw their support behind
Klaus. ‘I am voting for Klaus because I feel I must, for the sake of the
economy,’ said a member of the Prague Mothers, a group which took part in
demonstrations during the velvet revolution and continues to campaign on
green issues. Green parties earned only a small percentage of the vote,
plagued by claims that they are ‘watermelon’ parties: green on the outside,
red on the inside.

Professional environmentalists are also concerned about the state of
the economy. ‘There simply can be no environmental cleanup without money,’
says Martin Bobak, a researcher with the Czech Institute for Public Health,
which conducts basic research on the effects of poor environment on human
health.

Perhaps the biggest environmental issue facing Czechoslovakia is cleaning
up the energy industry. The 80 million tonnes of brown coal burnt every
year produce huge amounts of sulphur dioxide that are thought to be killing
the forests of Bohemia.

Yet environmentalists are split on the solution. Some groups support
a switch to nuclear energy, a policy that Greenpeace in Prague opposes.
‘People are very apathetic,’ says Antonin Muchar, of Greenpeace. ‘They say
‘yes, pollution is a problem, but what can we do, we can’t change the situation’