Even following the unequivocal Irish “Yes” to the EU Reform Treaty, the European Union can still not breathe a sigh of relief. After the Polish President Lech Kaczynski signed the agreement on 10 October, the European Union is now only waiting for his Czech counterpart, Vaclav Klaus. It is still not clear when and whether Vaclav Klaus will sign the reform document and it is almost superfluous to add that he steadfastly rejects the Lisbon Treaty. He has repeatedly warned that the ratification of the Treaty would threaten the sovereignty of individual Member States and that it would be detrimental to democracy within the EU.

In the European limelight

Meanwhile, nearly everybody knows that Vaclav Klaus is no advocate of further European integration. Hitherto, the European Union flag has not been flying over Prague Castle. The Czech President inveighs passionately and often also cynically against any EU reforms and likes to be in the European limelight. He has so far missed very few opportunities to exploit European political issues for his own interests and benefit which is far from conducive to the future of the European project. Whether the current Czech President’s interests are also the interests of the Czech Republic is highly doubtful. The question ‘by what democratic right does Vaclav Klaus undermine the viewpoint of a democratically-elected government abroad?’ pops up time and time again. His controversial statements continue to make headlines and more and more questions are raised about how Vaclav Klaus came to be re-elected. In 2008, Mirek Topolanek, whose cabinet fell in March 2009 during the Czech presidency of the EU Council, still supported the re-election of Vaclav Klaus. In the meantime, ODS Chairman Topolanek is describing the former Honorary Chairman of the ODS, Vaclav Klaus, as his political opponent.

“Plan B”

In the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus has few allies and not only in relation to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Shortly after the Irish referendum, he was handed a petition entitled ”We support our President” by a group of 300 demonstrators. The demonstration had been called by the initiative D.O.S.T (Citizens’ Initiative for Trust, Objectivity, Freedom and Tradition; “dost” means “enough”). On its homepage, this initiative uses slogans such as “We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated by (Euro)bolsheviks“, “Freedom for Ireland” and “No to the Lisbon dictate”. The petition had also been signed by some small-time politicians. When it was presented, Petr Mach, Chairman of the non-parliamentary SSO party (Free Citizens’ Party) boldly announced his “Plan B”. If the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, there is nothing left but to resign from the EU. It is of course laughable to presume that the majority of Czech citizens would support leaving the EU. The Czech population is pro-European and probably not even Vaclav Klaus would campaign for a withdrawal from the EU.

Play for time

Vaclav Klaus reacted calmly to the Irish “Yes”, but sharply condemned the rerun of the Irish referendum. However, it was thanks to the Czech interim government that an agreement about guarantees for Ireland was reached during the 2009 EU Summit, which paved the way for a new referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Klaus reacted calmly, because, after the Irish referendum, he held another trump, one that allows him to postpone the signing sine die. In the beginning of October, a group of ODS senators lodged a complaint against the Treaty with the Constitutional Court. ODS senators had already subjected part of the Treaty to the Court’s scrutiny in 2008, and, on that occasion, the Constitutional Court ruled that the scrutinized part complied with the Czech constitution. The fact that the ODS senators only lodged a fresh complaint with the Constitutional Court shortly before the Irish referendum, was certainly no accident. The tactics behind the repeated part-examination process are easy to see through, i.e. they want to delay the ratification for as long as possible. For the EU, this play for time is energy-sapping. It is a cover for the aspirations of the ODS senators and the Czech President to erect further barriers and to perhaps halt the ratification process altogether. Another hurdle on the road to ratification could be the referendum the British Conservatives promised if they were to come to power. Last week, Klaus moreover announced that, regardless of the ruling by the Czech Constitutional Court, he felt that an addendum to the Charter of Fundamental Rights would be required. According to Klaus, only an addendum could guarantee the validity of the Benes Decrees. In the Czech Republic, the Benes “card” is usually played, when politicians are holding a bad hand.
 
The Klaus phenomenon

Vaclav Klaus does not only reject the reform of the EU, but is also one of the last to dispute man-made climate change. He has devoted an entire book to the subject, called “Blue planet in green shackles - What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?” Hopefully, the EU will be able to free itself from the shackles Klaus & Co would like to put on the necessary reforms by means of diplomacy and equanimity, but also with a necessary dose of resoluteness. The fact that the Czech Republic is at present ruled by an interim government without a political mandate does not simplify matters. It is clear that Vaclav Klaus will try to gain time and publicity, which he feels he is entitled to, even when, to many, it may appear absurd. According to the Secretary to the President, criticism from abroad is like water off a duck’s back at Prague Castle. However, not only abroad, but also in the Czech Republic itself more and more people find the President’s conduct scandalous and are considering the possible consequences. But even domestic and foreign critiques don’t seem to bother Vaclav Klaus a whole lot. The more he can hog the limelight, the more grotesque his performance.

Since 1997, Eva van de Rakt has lived and worked in Prague. She is Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in the Czech Republic.

The German version of this article appeared in an abridged form in “der Freitag online”