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The somewhat sad funeral of Benedict XVI: Václav Klaus reflectsVáclav Klaus, an atheist and well-respected European thinker, former President of the Czech Republic, reflects on the funeral. (source in Czech)For me, and certainly for many others of us, the most significant event of this week was the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on Thursday. Immediately after his death was announced, I described his passing as a great loss. I added that he was 'the last of the great men of the 20th century who fought for the good old values' and that for me he was 'the main...

An interview with the former Czech president, possibly the West’s last truly outspoken leader ___ Václav Klaus has made a habit of saying things others shy away from saying, but it doesn’t seem to have done him much harm in the popularity stakes. Quite the opposite: the 73-year-old ardently Eurosceptic free-marketeer has legitimate claims to be regarded as the most successful ‘true blue’ conservative politician in Europe over the past 25 years. He was, after all, prime minister of the Czech Republic from 1992 to 1998 and then his country’s president for a further ten years, from 2003 to 2013....

'Two-faced' politicians have opened the door to an EU superstate by giving up on democracy, says Václav Klaus, the veteran Czech statesman. The new push for a European Union federation, complete with its own head of state and army, is the "final phase" of the destruction of democracy and the nation state, the president of the Czech Republic has warned. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Václav Klaus warns that "two-faced" politicians, including the Conservatives, have opened the door to an EU superstate by giving up on democracy, in a flight from accountability and responsibility to their voters. "We...

Many thanks for the invitation and for giving me the opportunity to address this distinguished audience. I am not for the first time in Chicago. It is also not for the first time that I am attending a conference organized by the Heartland Institute. But it is for the first time I am with Heartland here in Chicago.Some of you know that I came to Chicago for the NATO summit. Yesterday and today I was supposed to speak about what to do in Afghanistan, how to keep NATO going in an era of overall indebtedness and budgetary cuts, and about...

Great quote. Too bad we don't know who wrote it.... The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency.  It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to an electorate willing to have such a man for their president.  The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us.  Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to...

A Review of Václav Klaus’ Recent Book Blue Planet in Green Shackles Czech Republic President, Václav Klaus knows first hand the horrors of Communism. Nevertheless, in a recent question-and-answer session in the US Congress Committee on Energy and Commerce, he stated: As someone who lived under Communism for most of my life, I feel obliged to say that the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity at the beginning of the 21st Century, is not Communism or its various softer versions. It was replaced by the threat of ambitious environmentalism. In his recent book: Blue Planet...

One can tell – with a high degree of confidence – what topics are expected to be raised here, this morning when it comes to discussing the key challenges of today’s world. The selection of the moderator and my fellow-panelists only confirms it. I guess it is either international terrorism or poverty in Africa. Talking about both of these topics is necessary because they are real dangers but it is relatively easy to talk about them because it is politically correct. I do see those dangers and do not in any way underestimate them. I do, however, see another major...