Saturday, 21st February 2009

President Klaus

The visit of Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, will be remembered by me as the only occasion in my ten years at the European Parliament when I have been able to stand up and cheer what was said from the front of the room.

The speech started quite slowly. In fact, 10 minutes in I was worried that he might not speak his mind at all. But he warmed to his theme and stated that those that do not believe there are any alternative views are making a big mistake. He said: "Not so long ago, in our part of Europe, we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives!" Wow!

By this time we were applauding loudly, as the rest of the chamber looked in shock. When he moved on to suggest that the European Parliament had no real legitimacy with the voters, MEPs, including the British Labour Party, stood up and walked out in droves. This really was good fun.

The final attack was on the EU’s belief that it must centralise and control every aspect of the economy. This was damaging our economies and liberalisation and deregulation were needed. By now he was sounding pure UKIP; a Tory MEP in front of me was in despair. At the end about 50 of us stood up cheering wildly. All proper stuff! 

Afterwards I attended a luncheon for group leaders and Czech MEPs, where I was very pleased to meet Mr Klaus and talk to him. His aide told me that they had watched some of my speeches on YouTube, which is why I received a Christmas card from him.

During lunch I heard EP President Pöttering say to Klaus: "Your prejudices do not match up to your intellectual ability." They just do not get it, do they?

Photo: che, Czech Wikipedia

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