Václav Klaus for this Swiss magazine pro aurum: Keynes is the winner of the day, not Milton Friedman

English Pages, 10. 11. 2022

An actual war is raging in Ukraine, with countless direct and indirect victims, an economic crisis like no other in recent memory is ravaging working households and that “invisible thief”, namely inflation, is wiping out whatever was left of the middle class, forcing once-benefactors of food banks to become their beneficiaries. All the while, it seems that nobody is placing the blame where it belongs.

It is musings and questions like these that we recently discussed with Former President of the Czech Republic, Prof. Ing. Václav Klaus. In the interview that follows, he offers a lot of food of thought, drawing from his own extensive experience in politics during the most challenging times in modern memory and his deep understanding of geopolitics, economics and human nature itself. 

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Václav Klaus in Europa Stands debate organized by Israeli television TV7 in Helsinki

English Pages, 7. 11. 2022

The Former President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus attended the Europa Stands debate organized by the Israeli television station TV7 in Helsinki.

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Macedonia, the EU and the Tenets of the Contemporary World

English Pages, 29. 9. 2022

Many thanks for the invitation. This is my second trip to this beautiful town and its famous lake and my second participation in the School for Young Leaders organized by my long-time friend and colleague President Gjorge Ivanov.

I find the idea of organizing schools of this kind very positive and productive. Fifty-seven years ago, in 1965, I had a chance to attend a similar gathering in France, Annecy, in a place with an Alpine lake almost as beautiful as the one in Ohrid. I must confess that I intentionally used the adverb almost.

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Theses for addressing Identity and Democracy Group of the European Parliament in Prague

English Pages, 26. 9. 2022

Many thanks for giving me a chance to address your today’s meeting. Many thanks for choosing Prague as the place for it.

I remember – with pleasure – receiving the European Freedom Award from your group at your meeting in Stockholm in November 2016. It was in the days when Swedish Democrats were still part of your group. When they left it, they succeeded in winning the Swedish parliamentary elections. Isn’t it a signal for some of you?

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Notes for Karpacz: Is Central Europe (or Perhaps Central-Europeism) a Meaningful Concept?

English Pages, 7. 9. 2022

Many thanks for organizing this special session and for giving me the floor. I feel obliged to say that even though I consider myself and my country to be part of Central Europe, I know that saying so is a rather problematic statement.

Let me start by quoting the words devoted to this session in the program of the Forum, which we received in advance: “it is our duty to build one´s own identity and defend one´s own interests”. This is an excellent starting point. Nevertheless, our main identity (at least for most of us) is associated with the nation and its state – not with collectivities of nations or with supranational entities, such as the European Union. As I see it, however, Central Europe is not seeking to become a supranational entity.

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Remarks on the 31st Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland: The Future Has Already Begun

English Pages, 7. 9. 2022

When looking one year back, I see three main new developments:

1. The EU-induced Green Deal has begun to be felt by millions of our fellow citizens. Its very painful consequences have manifested themselves in the form of disruptions of the European energy markets and in the subsequent distortions of our economies, of our living standards and of our social systems;

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Sectoral Tax Leads to Dangerous Disruption of the Economic System

English Pages, 1. 9. 2022

The citizens of the Czech Republic have found themselves, somewhat surprisingly, in a difficult and very frustrating economic situation. The country has, for many years, "invested" in inflation and the result is that it currently exceeds horrifying 17 %. No one among the living has ever personally experienced such a high inflation rate.

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Unheeded warnings by Claudio Grass: Václav Klaus at the Marmara Forum

English Pages, 23. 6. 2022

This not the first time that Václav Klaus’ astute observations and experience-based predictions turn out to be shockingly accurate years later, and I’m pretty confident it will not be the last. Even before the examples that follow and that he clearly laid out in his address at the Marmara Forum, the former President of the Czech Republic has repeatedly proven to be quite prophetic in his assessment of the future.

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Today’s Threats to Energy Security: Are They Surprising?

English Pages, 16. 6. 2022

I am afraid that – unintentionally and not to my great joy – I will play the role of an iconoclast here today. My country, the Czech Republic, is “a net energy importing country” which more or less predetermines our position. We have coal mines and nuclear power plants (and are not ready to give them up). Until now, we have had an electric energy surplus. By contrast, we practically fully import oil and natural gas, mostly from the East – 50 % of oil and 96.5 % of gas from Russia and 16 % of oil from Azerbaijan (plus 18 % from Kazakhstan).

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Marmara Forum and Today’s World Crisis

English Pages, 9. 6. 2022

It is great to be in Istanbul after so many years, to be here after two years of mainly virtual contacts and to be here without masks. Many thanks to Prof. Suver and his colleagues and collaborators for making the meeting possible and for bringing us here. It is refreshing to get a chance to meet many good old friends here.

The times they are a changin’, as Bob Dylan sang almost sixty years ago. I was here last time in April 2015, seven years ago. The world was different then in many aspects.

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