Maverick Czech President Brings Critical Gospel To EU - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty »
Posted By gamahuche 9 months ago in Political NewsCzech President Vaclav Klaus, the European Union's most prominent "eurosceptic," raised hackles in Brussels last week when he castigated the EU for failing to live up to the ideals of democracy ...
The Czech president's style also does nothing to endear him to western European audiences. His claims to expound "elementary principles" of European civilization, "rational thinking," and precepts grounded in "the whole 2,000-year history of European civilization" chafe most ears.
For his own government, Klaus is something of an embarrassment for the duration of the Czech EU Presidency -- one it has no option but to suffer, according to Czech Prime Minister Miroslav Topolanek.
"You know very well that the president is not answerable to the government for his international speeches," Topolanek said. "President Klaus, on a parliamentary level, has the right to state his views. And anyone who tries to deny him that right -- and I may not agree with [Klaus's] views -- will have to clash with me and with all democrats in this country."
In the end, Klaus is perhaps best measured against his mold-breaking predecessor, Vaclav Havel. He seems to lack Havel's charisma, but also his vision.
Havel had the power to move the goalposts in the broadest intellectual debates and force his interlocutors to engage him on his terms.
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gamahuche
"I would rather be a square peg than fit in a pigeon hole" -
an essay which won me the "Lamb Essay Prize" at the Religious ...
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gamahuche9 months ago
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I'll be honest - as always - I detest Klaus personally as a deeply-flawed and deceitful human being and as someone who is not able to rise to the role which he has taken on as the representative of our nation in the international sphere.
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Arrogant, opinionated, dishonest, conceited - well I guess you get that he's not my cup of tea and is the antithesis of our first post-Communist President, Vaclav Havel, who though no saint, was - and remains a warm, compassionate, friendly, humane survivor of the long and hard struggle against Communism. While Havel was imprisoned many times Klaus held down a cushy job as an economist.
As for being our representative at the EU - he's like the fox in the chicken-house; perhaps not killing the chickens but definitely making the feathers fly and making enemies of our fellow members when we need all the friends that we can get.
As a staunch global-warming denier he is also out-of-step with European thinking and worst of all there is an accession treaty which needs to be signed by all the members which he is currently unwilling to sign.
FTA:
The alternatives the Czech president advocates are none too clear. What he appears to want is a wholesale reversal of the EU's political and economic projects as they are conceived today.
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Just what we and Europe relly need! -
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berkeley9 months ago
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the EU also has had it's share of behind the scenes deals that are blatantly anti-democratic. it's as much in the grip of the corporate world as our congress.
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if he confined his critiques to these issues, he would gain more support, and respect, but maybe he doesn't have a populist bone in his body. -
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tadair9199 months ago
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Klaus did what was expected of him. His speech was another uncompromising broadside against the EU, its policies, institutions, and philosophical underpinnings.
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His argument, in a nutshell, was that proponents of ever-deeper political integration have hijacked the European Union. The advocates of further integration have turned their views into an "uncriticizable dogma," Klaus said...
Good for him.-
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gamahuche9 months ago
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With the history that we have behind us it is essential that we place ourselves firmly in the European camp. That is also the desire of the large majority of the population.
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The alternative is reliance on other players who have also very effectively let us down in the past. The argument about the so-called "missile shield" - the one that shields G_d knows who - but not us - from G_d knows who but probably nobody from Iran - also revolves around that same theme.
Above all Klaus is NOT representing the majority opinion in his nation and his behaviour in Brussels has been unseemly to say the least.
e.g. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ae595a3a-feb7-11dd-b19a-...
Financial Times
By Joshua Chaffin in Brussels
Published: February 19 2009 19:23 | Last updated: February 19 2009 19:23
Members of the European parliament walked out in protest on Thursday after Vaclav Klaus, the Czech Republic president, said the institution suffered a “democratic deficit” and likened its workings to those of eastern Europe during the communist era.
In his first address to the parliament, Mr Klaus characterised the institution as one that alienated voters and offered no credible opposition. He argued that decision-making powers should be pushed out of Brussels and back to individual member states.
Mr Klaus said: “Here, only one single alternative is being promoted and those who dare thinking about a different option are labelled as enemies of European integration. Not so long ago, in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives.”
Members could be seen throwing up their hands and streaming towards the exits.
Mr Klaus further enraged his hosts when he later refused to say whether he would sign the Lisbon treaty, a key measure to further European Union integration that would also strengthen the role of the European parliament.
“A chess player does not reveal his next moves,” he said, in reference to the document, which was approved by the Czech parliament this week and is expected to be put to Irish voters in a second referendum this year.
Mr Klaus’s euro-scepticism was well known. Nonetheless, his performance presented yet another distraction for the Czech Republic’s first EU presidency, which began six weeks ago with an art installation that mocked fellow member states.
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tadair9199 months ago
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"Klaus did what was expected of him. His speech was another uncompromising broadside against the EU, its policies, institutions, and philosophical underpinnings.
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His argument, in a nutshell, was that proponents of ever-deeper political integration have hijacked the European Union. The advocates of further integration have turned their views into an "uncriticizable dogma," Klaus said..."
Good for him. -
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jimdoze9 months ago
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Europe needs to be (and remain) deeply integrated. That integration, which (to my mind) is America's greatest foreign policy achievement is essential to keep those fratricidal lunatics from destroying themselves. Insofar as Klaus is somehow a threat to that integration, that is a big negative. Insofar as he is willing to question the oh so au courant global warming orthodoxy, I take that as a minor positive.
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gamahuche9 months ago
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I don't disagree one iota with your opinion about that jim.
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ALL politicians need keeping under control and preferably on a tight leash!
Unfortunately the current economic crisis will probably create MORE attempts to satisfy selfish national interests - which when compounded with individual egotism definitely makes for a foul wicked witches' brew.
[No disrespect intended to all the wonderful witches out there!]
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