Czech hang-ups cloud almost proud occasion
It ought to be a seminal moment: As a new president takes office in Washington, the Czech Republic assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union, the first former Soviet bloc country to lead the group of 470 million citizens, and during one of the worst economic conflagrations in a century.
But instead of welcoming the opportunity for this country of 10 million to shepherd the world's biggest trading bloc, the fiery Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, has evoked the Munich Agreement of 1938, when the Allied powers helped to carve up Czechoslovakia and hand parts of Czech lands to Nazi Germany.
Capturing the national mood, Klaus told the Czech television broadcaster Prima in late October that the Czech presidency would be "insignificant" since Europe, now as then, was controlled by France, Germany, Italy and Britain. Czech politicians, he warned, should not think they could change anything.
Read entire article at International Herald Tribune
But instead of welcoming the opportunity for this country of 10 million to shepherd the world's biggest trading bloc, the fiery Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, has evoked the Munich Agreement of 1938, when the Allied powers helped to carve up Czechoslovakia and hand parts of Czech lands to Nazi Germany.
Capturing the national mood, Klaus told the Czech television broadcaster Prima in late October that the Czech presidency would be "insignificant" since Europe, now as then, was controlled by France, Germany, Italy and Britain. Czech politicians, he warned, should not think they could change anything.