You Say You'll Change the Constitution

The first EU head of state (or literally, future EU head of state) has officially come out against the proposed Brussels constitution: Czech President Vaclav Klaus.

Comments

[Jean Bart]

Matt,

Is the proposed new voting regime his main criticism?

[Matt Welch]

Jean -- I haven't followed it closely enough to say. Klaus has always been as Euro-skeptic as possible (i.e., he won't drag has feet in accession talks, not wanting to be left behind Poland & Hungary, but he'll slam Brussels to Western audiences while refusing to campaign domestically in support of EU referenda).

[Jean Bart]

Matt,

Hmm, he sounds like a politician. 🙂

[Matt Welch]

The most successful politician in modern Czech history, I'd say....

[Jean Bart]

Matt,

You don't think Benes was more successful? He was more successful than Poland's Sikorskii (admittedly the latter was killed in a plane crash in 1943).

[Matt Welch]

Jean -- Being a youngun', I define "modern" as post-1989. I don't know enough about Benes to judge; though when living in Slovakia & Hungary, I heard earfuls about his infamous Decrees. I'd guess that T.G. Masaryk has him beat as a politician, but it's only a guess.

[Gene Berkman]

Vaclav Klaus seems to have mishandled privatization when he was Prime Minister, but since becoming President he has come out against the European Union super-state and he opposed the US war on Iraq.

So he is a good spokesman on international affairs, if we can just keep his hand out of the till.

[David Tenner]

I'd say the most successful politician in Czech history was Klement Gottwald, at least assuming his death in 1953 was natural (it came suspiciously just after the death of his patron, the Great Leader and Teacher, in Moscow). I don't know what percent of the vote Klaus got, but after 1948 Gottwald always got 100% 🙂

[Douglas Fletcher]

Is Saudi Arabia getting to vote on this?

[Jean Bart]

David Tenner,

A number of Eastern European leaders died soon after Stalin.