Word: vaclav
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...Obamas' private dinner may, in fact, be a way of avoiding political awkwardness in the Czech capital: They will not be joining President Vaclav Klaus (a skeptic on global warming) at a state dinner; nor will they be sharing delicious Czech lager at an informal pub visit with Topolanek, whose government collapsed a day before his comment about Obama's stimulus inferno. Czech sources insist that the Americans had turned down those two invitations before the Prime Minister's remark. (See pictures of the Obamas in Europe...
...Czechs are more realistic about the impact of the Obama visit on their own political class. The U.S. President's "goal is to address Europeans in the country [currently] presiding over the European Union and to have a picture taken with [former Czech president and anti-Communist resistance icon] Vaclav Havel," says political scientist Jiri Pehe, a former Havel adviser who heads Prague's branch of New York University. "I don't want to be cruel, but present-day Czech politicians do not interest...
Political uncertainty in Prague seems to have added to the unsteady leadership. In Tuesday's vote, Topolanek was defeated by the mainly center-left opposition, but he has also had to cope with sniping from his own president, Vaclav Klaus. Klaus has been outspoken about his criticisms of every aspect of the E.U., even telling the European Parliament last month that it was an elitist project comparable to Soviet-era dictatorships...
...while some Czechs may be flushed with pride, President Vaclav Klaus is not, and that has officials in Brussels riled. The Czech leader, a Euro skeptic in the best of times, has refused to fly the E.U. flag over public buildings like Prague Castle, saying it reminds him of the days when his country was made to fly the Soviet flag. Outgoing E.U. president Nicolas Sarkozy of France called that stance an "outrage" and a "wound," while European Commission president José Manuel Barroso said anyone comparing the E.U. with the Soviet Union "doesn't understand what the Soviet Union...
...Among other things, the flap underscores the difficulty of gleaning the truth from communist- era archives. Police files similar to the one in which this document was found exist in most post-communist countries in eastern Europe. And such celebrated opponents of communism as former Czech President Vaclav Havel and Polish dissident journalist Adam Michnik have argued strenuously against their contents being divulged to the public, for fear that the information will be misinterpreted, used for political gain, or to carry out personal vendettas. Skeptics also point out that the communist-era police frequently forged documents to embarrass state enemies...