News

By Ellen M. Rice

PRAGUE, December 15, 2008 (Lifesitenews.com) – An “EU assault” is what Christopher Booker of the London Telegraph has called the December 5th meeting between Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, and members of the Conference of the Presidents of the European Parliament. Booker said the meeting was a “bizarre confrontation” that confirms that the EU is a “one-party state.”

Klaus is set to assume a six-month presidency of the European Union beginning next month, succeeding Nicholas Sarkozy of France. So far, however, the Czech Republic is the only EU country not to have taken a position on the pro-abortion, pro-homosexual “marriage” Lisbon Treaty, and it is among the countries cited by the EU as “discriminatory” against homosexuals. Klaus’ presidency, therefore, is of concern to the leftist EU-elites who have used the Union as a tool to push their socially liberal agenda on member states.  

According to English translations of the meeting transcript released by the Czech government, Greens/EFA co-president Daniel Cohn-Bendit opened the meeting by attacking Klaus’ skepticism on man-made global warming: “It will be a tough Presidency. The Czech Republic will have to deal with the work directive and climate package. … My view is based on scientific views and majority approval of the EP and I know you disagree with me. You can believe what you want, I don’t believe, I know that global warming is a reality.”

He then assaulted the Czech President’s views on the Lisbon Treaty: “Lisbon Treaty – I don’t care about your opinions on it. I want to know what you are going to do if the Czech Chamber of Deputies and the Senate approve it. Will you respect the will of the representatives of the people? You will have to sign it.”

Cohn-Bendit also interrogated Klaus about his associations with an Irish leader who campaigned for a “No” vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum. “I want you to explain to me what is the level of your friendship with Mr. Ganley from Ireland,” said the German leader. He ordered, “You are not supposed to meet him in your function.”

As Klaus protested, “I have never experienced anything like this before,” Cohn-Bendit replied, “Because you have not experienced me.”

Continuing, Cohn-Bendit demanded that Klaus explain his attitude “toward the anti-discrimination law,” regarding homosexuals. And Brian Crowley, the Irish leader of the UEN Party, who was also present at the meeting, insisted that, despite the resounding “No” vote by the Irish in the recent referendum, the Irish in fact “wish for the Lisbon Treaty.”

Klaus responded to the attack with strong words, suggesting that the behavior of the delegates proved that it is a “post-democracy which rules the EU.”

“Thank you for this experience which I gained from this meeting. I did not think anything like this is possible and have not experienced anything like this for the past 19 years,” he said.

“You mentioned the European values,” Klaus continued. “The most important value is freedom and democracy. The citizens of the EU member states are concerned about freedom and democracy, above all. But democracy and freedom are losing ground in the EU today.”

He also took Crowley to task for claiming that the Irish people want the Lisbon Treaty, when they only recently rejected it in a firm “No” vote. “If Mr. Crowley speaks of an insult to the Irish people,” he said, “then I must say that the biggest insult to the Irish people is not to accept the result of the Irish referendum. In Ireland I met somebody who represents a majority in his country. You, Mr. Crowley, represent a view which is in minority in Ireland. That is a tangible result of the referendum.”

Crowley rebuked the Czech President, “You will not tell me what the Irish think. As an Irishman, I know it best.” To which Klaus responded, “I do not speculate about what the Irish think. I state the only measurable data which were proved by the referendum.”

Klaus has been a vociferous opponent of the Lisbon Treaty in recent weeks.  On November 25, 2008, Xinhua reported that Klaus told the Czech Constitutional Court that, “The Lisbon Treaty, if passed, will change the Czech Republic’s international position and may reduce its sovereignty.” 

According to the Prague Daily Monitor: “Klaus still does not want to say how he will behave if the Czech parliament ratifies the Lisbon Treaty. However, Klaus has made it clear that he will do everything to delay his signatures as much as possible, as has done another opponent of the treaty, Polish President Lech Kaczynski.”

Critics of the Lisbon Treaty have said that it is merely a cosmetically altered version of the former EU Constitution that was rejected by France and the Netherlands, and that it would hand over an enormous amount of power to the EU, fatally undermining the sovereignty of its member states.

The EU has also been strongly criticized for not accepting the Irish vote and attempting to strong-arm the Irish into holding a second referendum, this time to get the “right” answer. Recently it was revealed that Ireland appears to have agreed to such a second referendum.

Reacting to the diplomatic “assault” at Prague Castle, Christopher Booker of The London Telegraph warns of a “one party state,” the signs of which are causing “shock across formerly Communist Eastern Europe.”

“This bizarre confrontation,” wrote Booker, “confirms the inability of the Euro-elite to accept that anyone holds different views from their own, on Lisbon, global warming or anything else. As we see from the way our own political parties are run, when it comes to ‘Europe,’ the system has no place for opposition. Everything must be decided by ‘consensus,’ directed from the top. There is only one approved ‘party line.’”

  See bio information on Daniel Cohn-Bendit, including the fact that he was a bookseller at the Karl Marx bookfair (1969-1973)
  https://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch/view.do?id=1934