Monday 8 December 2008

Spirited Democrat v Chippy EU Bullies

You do not have to be a political anorak to read the following and feel your blood boil. I would run across a busy motorway to punch the bog-trotter Crowley on the nose; I'm not too fussed about his dead relatives, I have to say. Perhaps I plugged one in a firefight in the early eighties in Armagh.
Thankfully, the man pictured is a proper geezer. The Czechs take over the EU presidency in January.

Excerpts from the transcript of a meeting between Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, and members of the Conference of the Presidents of the European Parliament, Friday 5 December 2008, Prague Castle.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit MEP: I brought you a flag, which, as we heard, you have everywhere here at the Prague Castle. It is the flag of the European Union, so I will place it here in front of you. It will be a tough Presidency. The Czech Republic will have to deal with the work directive and climate package. EU climate package represents less than what our faction would wish for. It will be necessary to hold on to the minimum of that. I am certain that the climate change represents not only a risk, but also a danger for the future development of the planet. 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.
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.
I want you to explain to me what is the level of your friendship with Mr Ganley from Ireland. How can you meet a person whose funding is unclear? You are not supposed to meet him in your function. It is a man whose finances come from problematic sources and he wants to use them to be funding his election campaign into the EP.

President Vaclav Klaus: I must say that nobody has talked to me in such a style and tone for the past 6 years. You are not on the barricades in Paris here. I thought that these manners ended for us 18 years ago but I see I was wrong. I would not dare to ask how the activities of the Greens are funded. If you are concerned about a rational discussion in this half an hour, which we have, please give the floor to someone else, Mr Chairman.

EU Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering: No, we have plenty of time. My colleague will continue, because anyone from the members of the EP can ask you whatever he likes. (to Cohn-Bendit:) Please continue.

Klaus: This is incredible. I have never experienced anything like this before.

Cohn-Bendit: Because you have not experienced me..

Klaus: This is incredible.

Cohn-Bendit: We have always had good talks with President Havel. And what will you tell me about your attitude towards the anti-discrimination law? I will gladly inform you about our funding.

Pöttering: Brian Crowley, please.

Brian Crowley MEP: I am from Ireland and I am a member of a party in government. All his life my father fought against the British domination. Many of my relatives lost their lives. That is why I dare to say that the Irish wish for the Lisbon Treaty. It was an insult, Mr. President, to me and to the Irish people what you said during your state visit to Ireland. It was an insult that you met Declan Ganley, a man with no elected mandate. This man has not proven the sources from which his campaign was funded. I just want to inform you what the Irish felt. I wish you that you get the programme of your Presidency through and you will get through what European citizens want to see.

Klaus: 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. I thought it was a matter of the past that we live in democracy, but it is post-democracy, really, which rules the EU.
You mentioned the European values. 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. It is necessary to strive for them and fight for them.
I would like to emphasize, above all, what most citizens of the Czech Republic feel, that for us the EU membership has no alternative. It was me who submitted the EU application in the year 1996 and who signed the Accession treaty in 2003. But the arrangements within the EU have many alternatives. To take one of them as sacrosanct, untouchable, about which it is not possible to doubt or criticize it, is against the very nature of Europe.
As for the Lisbon Treaty, I would like to mention that it is not ratified in Germany either. The Constitutional Treaty, which was basically the same as the Lisbon Treaty, was refused in referendums in other two countries. If Mr. Crowley speaks of an insult to the Irish people, 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: With all respect, Mr. President, you will not tell me what the Irish think. As an Irishman, I know it best.

Klaus: I do not speculate about what the Irish think. I state the only measurable data which were proved by the referendum.
In our country the Lisbon Treaty is not ratified because our parliament has not decided on it yet. It is not the President's fault. Let's wait for the decision of both Chambers of the Parliament, that is the current phase of the ratification process in which the President plays no role whatsoever. I cannot sign the Treaty today, it is not on my table, it is up to the parliament to decide about it now. My role will come after the eventual approval of the Treaty in the Parliament...

Pöttering: ... In the conclusion - and I want to leave this room in good terms - I would like to say that it is more than unacceptable, if you compare us, compare us with the Soviet Union. We are all deeply rooted in our countries and our constituencies. We are concerned about freedom and reconciliation in Europe, we are good willing, not naïve.

Klaus: I did not compare you with the Soviet Union, I did not mention the words "Soviet Union". I only said that I have not experienced such an atmosphere, such style of debate in the past 19 years in the Czech Republic, really.

10 comments:

drevetailimin said...

And Czech women are the best prostitutes(So I hear)

lilith said...

Unbelievable. Really astonishing.

Unknown said...

Vacek, do to ho! (Trans: Vaclav, go go go).

He's known (in all seriousness) in the Czech Republic as the "Czech Thatcher".

He's a well-known, well-understood Euro-hatist and Vaclav Havel and he hate each other. He was known as a major technocrat in the immediate post-revolutionary times there and it took two attempts to have him nominated to the post of President.

Personally speaking I think that the bog-trotting F-wit, who knows "so well" what the Irish want that he completely misjudged the outcome of the Lisbon treaty referendum can, in Czech do prdele!.

idle said...

Thank you, beast. I don't imagine this will be a long comment thread, but it introduces another, no less important dimension.

The motivation for the fenian Crowley, craig, appears to have been a loathing for what Gerry Adams calls the Bruddish, rather than for anything that improves the self-determination and prosperity of his fellow bogtrotters.

Unknown said...

Idle, sir - you and I are gentleman soldiers of a certain era, both BANNERists, I believe.

We ARE (or rather, WERE) the "Bruddish" and thus I reiterate my commentary on Crowley being a F-wit.

Tuscan Tony said...

Whooaaa! Hot stuff, idle, I had no idea these exchznges were so forthright, More power to "Santa" Klaus, I say.

Electro-Kevin said...

"I don't imagine this will be a long comment thread ..."

And there you hit the nail on the head. A slow and bloodless coup of all Nations the main weapons against which are boredom and esotericism.

It took me two or three readings of this, both here and on OH, for the words to coalesce into their true meaning - it felt rather like the time I was lost on a mountain and realised that I'd been looking at the map on entirely the wrong scale; my vision zoomed out and I realised that my error was vast - the map took on an entirely different characteristic and 2D became 3D as the contour lines lifted what I thought were hills into mountains; the map seemed to bulge and dip as though it were a real landscape in my hands and I've never looked at a map the same way since; I think this is what they call a paradigm shift and the feeling is ominous when one has so much at stake.

The Federalists will never accept a 'No' vote, not ANYWHERE in the EU. They ask why the Irish rejected it and suggest that they need to be 'educated' in the matter and asked again. They ignore the fact that whenever the people are given a vote they will ALWAYS respond in the negative - this is because they are rightly suspicious of the EU. So they bully and cheat to kill democracy.

This is evil.

Anonymous said...

Three rousing cheers for Mr Klaus.

Now you know two things:
1. Why Prague remains such a beautiful city despite the best efforts of the Soviets; and
2. The next 6 months are going to be very interesting indeed.

But I do wonder just how many allies he will be able to rely on in that cesspit of a "parliament".

Concur with comments about Creepy Crowley (what has his father's problems with the Brits got to do with Crowley's presence in the EU Parlt anyway?). The man can't see further than his NWO order paper. Perhaps we should ask Guido and hismates to sort him out.

idle said...

I had not realised that OH posted this on Sunday, E-K. Mea Culpa. Perhaps we are on the same press cuttings email service, which was my source.

We have to realise that, post-war or not, the DNA of Western Europeans remains the same. With the exception of the Swiss, this DNA is not conducive to liberal democracy. The urge of the 'political elite' is to control everything from the centre, and to preach contentment to their constituents, without ever really allowing them any prospect of change.

This sort of breathtaking arrogance has ALWAYS been recognised and punished in Britain, as Brown will find out in due course, despite being up against a hopeless Tory opposition.

The day Britain votes to go along with this mindset is the day we will just have to face the music, and depart.

idle said...

Frankly I doubt that Guido spends enough time on the Emerald Isle to require a change of underwear, nomes.

The sainted Mrs Fawkes might have some brothers, though.