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EU criticism has become fashionable, Czech leader says

EU criticism has become fashionable, Czech leader says

For a very long time the Czech president Vaclav Klaus was the only European head of state openly criticising the draft EU constitution. But the French and Dutch rejection of the charter over summer has changed the mood among Europe’s top politicians and diplomats. "I may be alone among the heads of states and heads of governments in Europe. But I am definitively not alone among Europeans", says Mr Klaus. "Some sort of reflection has started in Europe. When I compare the atmosphere this year with that of last year, there is now a much more relaxed discussion. There is a shift in thinking," the Czech conservative president, Vaclav Klaus, confided in an interview with the EUobserver. "In the past, I was almost alone criticising the EU, but now I discovered that it’s fashionable, criticising one aspect of EU politics after the other." Lady Thatcher and Vaclav Klaus are politically very close allies. He, more than anyone else in continental Europe, has been keeping alight her conservative ideals of freedom, liberalism, democracy and euroscepticism.

Czech President Warns Against “Europeanism”

President Klaus spoke last Monday, warning for the new “substitute ideologies of socialism” such as “Europeanism” and “NGOism.” These “isms” are currently threatening Europe. “In the first decade of the 21st century we should not concentrate exclusively on socialism,” he said. Though communism, the “hard version of socialism” is probably over this has not automatically led “to a system we would like to have and live in,” he said.

The Intellectuals and Socialism: As Seen from a Post-Communist Country Situated in Predominantly Post-Democratic Europe

They prefer ideas, which give them jobs and income and which enhance their power and prestige. They look for ideas, which enhance the role of the state because the state is usually their main employer, sponsor or donator. The intellectuals are mostly interested in abstract, not directly implementable ideas. The communist politicians needed their intellectual fellow-travelers. They were not “valued” (or evaluated) by the invisible hand of the market but by the very visible hand of the rulers of that society. It is Europe, where we witness the crowding out of democracy by post democracy. The elimination of some of the borders without actual liberalization of human activities “only” shifts governments upwards, which means to the level where there is no democratic accountability and where the decisions are made by politicians appointed by politicians, not elected by citizens in free elections.

posted by Unknown @ 6:05 PM