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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.

The fact that the Germans elected Merkel to a key position and kept her in charge for 18 years says that her policies were their policies. The degree of elementary disloyalty in this case is appalling. And warning.

I also wanted to remind you that seventy years ago Elvis Presley's first single, Blue Moon of Kentucky, was released. And that in many ways, it began a whole new era, a sort of the revolution. I'm afraid not entirely crucial for Merkel. Unfortunately. 

Like a bolt out of the blue, President Trump was attacked in an attempt of assassination. We've all already commented on it, there's probably nothing new and revelatory to say now, but the unrevelatory needs to be constantly reminded – this was an assassination attempt that was going to change the world. I don't understand President Biden not knowing what the motive for this assassination was. I have dealt with President Biden repeatedly (most often as Obama's Vice President), and therefore - due to my natural loyalty - I do not subscribe to the usual harsh assessment of his health today.

But now I am obliged to protest. Does he really not know what the motive for this assassination was? If it were true, it would be even worse. We all know what the motive was. The only ones who don't know are those who don't want - in America and in the world - much needed change. And such a change Biden does not want and cannot bring. (I say this as someone who has repeatedly warned against exaggerated expectations of the changes that could occur in the event of a Trump’s victory.) The downplaying of what happened in Pennsylvania on Saturday is unacceptable. I won't quote the appalling statements made by some politicians in the Czech governing coalition.

More incredible things are happening in Brussels and Strasbourg this week. That the European Parliament is not a parliament has been said by all thinking people for a long time. I have said and written it a thousand times. But that there would be such disrespect for the outcome of the elections as there is now in the filling of the highest posts in the EU is something I did not expect. That there was talk long before the election of four names of future top EU officials (a German, a Portuguese, a Maltese and an Estonian) seemed to me to be absolutely scandalous. That these names have turned out to be real is even worse. It is confirmation that the European Union does not need elections to function. The irremovable European elites together with the European bureaucracy rule, whatever happens in the elections.

The fact that the totally unpopular and discredited Ursula von der Leyen is going to become President of the European Commission again is scandalous. Is this the result of the June elections? That a virtually unknown Portuguese man is to become President of the European Council, incidentally from a country which, like Malta and Estonia, is on the periphery of Europe, and which has already had a particularly unsuccessful representative in the EU leadership (Jose Barroso)? Is it an expression of true European democracy that the next two top posts - the Presidency of Parliament and the leadership of European diplomacy (the post of EU Foreign Minister) - will be held by two women from the smallest European countries, Estonia and Malta?

It is not an expression of democracy or recognition of small states when France, with a population of almost 70 million, has no one in the EU leadership, while Estonia, with a population of one million, and Malta, with half a million, have two of these four senior posts. (It should not be forgotten, however, that Estonia is the easternmost EU country on the border with Russia and that Mrs. Kallas is an extreme advocate of "war" politics.)

We should always look for optimism and hope. I am really struggling to find them, but I can’t. It is possible of course to withdraw into ourselves and live our entirely private lives, but that would have to mean that the new European world would stay out of our private lives. The opposite is true. It does interfere, almost as much as it did under communism.

Václav Klaus, 23. 7. 2024