phideltacity

The president of the Czech Republic, a staunch nationalist, has quite obviously lost his perspective on history when he compared the EU to the Soviet Union. During A speach he held in front oft the EU legislature to mark the transfer of the rotating EU presidency he compared the EU efforts of better political cooperation to Soviet centralism. The fact that he has endured himself in a state behind the iron curtain hightens the loss of perspective. He was able to make his speach with impunity shows quite explicitly how wrong his comparison really is.
To have a senior statesman pander so unashamedly to the anti EU factions in his countries political landscape is proof that European politics are by no means superior to politics in the US. As much as Europeans want to claim the high ground, the Czech president has made that as impossible for the forseeable future as Bush has made it for the US.
It will take a historic event like the election of the first black president to regain that. Yet while in the US that event has passed, Europe is far away from the ability to regain its credibility.
It saddens the heart to see a great project like the EU damaged by a small minded man such as president Klaus.