Václav Klaus at the 22nd Vienna Congress: Remarks at the Speakers’ Reception

English Pages, 26. 1. 2025

It’s a great pleasure for me to be here in Vienna, in the more than beautiful Hotel Imperial, reminding us of the good old days, of the world of yesterday (die Welt von Gestern).

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Notes for Davos: “Expecting the Unexpected”

English Pages, 20. 1. 2025

Many thanks for the invitation to this already traditional dinner organized by Shafik Gabr on the occasion of the Davos Economic Forum. The participants of this dinner are either regular guests of the Davos Forum or friends of Shafik. I belong to the second group. After welcoming me at his Davos Forum seventeen times (for the first time in January 1990), Mr. Schwab started to consider me – some fifteen years ago – as one of his fundamental ideological opponents. He was right. I am a fundamental opponent of Mr. Schwab and his way of thinking about our world.

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Václav Klaus at the National Day Reception of the Kingdom of Thailand

English Pages, 4. 12. 2024

Thailand is for us a distant and exotic country, much different in its culture, history, way of life and type of nature, but it is a country with which we have had diplomatic relations for 50 years and important economic and political relations. 

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Notes for Montenegro: A World Order Under Threat. Is There Any Chance to Change It?

English Pages, 25. 11. 2024

It is great to see good old friends after such a long time and to get a chance to discuss with them the topics we all consider crucial and fundamental. We may have different views on some of them, but the friendly and free exchange of views is absolutely irreplaceable. There is no alternative to it.

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20 Years in the EU: Czech and Polish in Many Respects Differing Experience

English Pages, 14. 11. 2024

Many thanks for inviting me to Poznaň, to this year’s Poznaň Economic Congress, and for offering me the opportunity to speak here. I am really pleased to be here. This is not my first visit to your city. I was here in June 2006 speaking – together with my good friend, the great Polish politician, the tragically deceased President Lech Kaczyński – at a public rally devoted to the 50th anniversary of the October 1956 uprising, which is connected with your city. This event shouldn’t be forgotten. My generation in the Czech Republic still remembers what the famous Polish “październik“ was. We were following this historic event in Poland with enormous interest. Some people started even to learn Polish at that moment.

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Václav Klaus: A Few Remarks on the Nation-State Sovereignty and the Concept of Europe of Nations

English Pages, 25. 10. 2024

Many thanks for the invitation. Let me start by confessing that I am always glad to have the opportunity to come to Budapest and Hungary. I feel I am in a free country. Thank you for selecting such an excellent topic for my speech at the conference: “The Importance of the nation-state sovereignty and the concept of Europe of nations”. My thanks are not just a courtesy statement. Such a title can’t be raised in any other European country these days, only in Hungary.

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The Presentation of the Former President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus at the Chinese Embassy on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China

English Pages, 27. 9. 2024

Dear Mr. Ambassador, Ambassadors, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

let me start by congratulating all of you to the 75^th anniversary of the founding of the People´s Republic of China. Mr. Ambassador, we have always been following the developments of your country with a great interest. We know that your country has made – in these three quarters of a century – an enormous progress. Especially in the last three or four decades the Chinese economy and the living standards of its 14 hundred million people have made an – in the world history unprecedented – jump forward.

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Notes for Karpacz 2024: Is the EU 20 Years after our Entry in It Greater?

English Pages, 4. 9. 2024

Many thanks for the invitation and for the opportunity to speak here. To speak here again. Because of some other commitments, I missed the last year’s Forum, I am all the more pleased to be here now.

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Václav Klaus: Political reflections in the middle of a hot summer

English Pages, 23. 7. 2024

I originally thought that high temperatures and summer atmosphere would be the key event of the summer. So I thought I would write this week’s column about, for example, the devastating fire that broke out in Rome exactly 1960 years ago, which led to tragic Emperor Nero’s settling his disputes with the Christians. Or that I will write about the fact that Angela Merkel, who - although for many years the superstar in politics of Europe or the world - has effectively disappeared from the world, turns 70 this week. The undignified way in which her CDU, and indeed the whole of Germany, got rid of her is glaring. I fundamentally disagreed with her on many things, but she was a product and an embodiment of Germany, not a politician who led Germany astray with her original leadership.

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Václav Klaus’s Comments at the Turkish Remembrance Ceremony

English Pages, 15. 7. 2024

Many thanks for the invitation. Many thanks for giving me the chance to speak here, even though the topic you have chosen for today’s discussion is a real challenge for me. It is a challenge because we – in contemporary Europe – live in an era of limited freedom to express non-mainstream, non-politically correct views.

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