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You cannot have democratic accountability in anything bigger than a nation state.
Vaclav Klaus
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Vaclav Klaus
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: June 19
Economist
Pedagogue
Politician
Statesman
Teacher
Praha
Vaclav Klaus
Democracy
Nations
State
Cannot
States
Accountability
Anything
Democratic
Bigger
Nation
More quotes by Vaclav Klaus
Czech Republic is an important part of central Europe. It's clear that we must participate in European integration. I am convinced that the Czech Republic - or, in the past, Czechoslovakia - would have been one of the founding members of the EU if it hadn't been for the communist takeover in 1948.
Vaclav Klaus
As someone who lived under communism for most of my life I feel obliged to say that the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity at the beginning of the 21st century is not communism or its various softer variants. Communism was replaced by the threat of ambitious environmentalism.
Vaclav Klaus
It is what makes the reform process an art, not just a science. You have to develop a strategy that tells you what reform measures you should follow and in what sequence.
Vaclav Klaus
My main concern is the political dimension of European integration. This is one of the most important issues of all, as far as I'm concerned. It has to do with our past, with our sensitivity, perhaps even our hypersensitivity in this regard.
Vaclav Klaus
not a scientific body capable of accurately assessing the facts about global warming.
Vaclav Klaus
Then in 1969, I spent the spring term at Cornell University in New York. The invasion of August 1968 had already happened, but the hardline regime took several months to crack down on dissidents.
Vaclav Klaus
Communism was replaced by the threat of ambitious environmentalism.
Vaclav Klaus
What is concisely referred to as global warming, is a fatal mistake of the present time.
Vaclav Klaus
The message of [Fahernheit 9/11] is very weak and propagandistic ... We were used to such messages in the communist days. Everybody has open eyes and can understand that this is propaganda. It was a weak film that tells us nothing new.
Vaclav Klaus
I don't think there is any global warming. I don't see the statistical data for that.
Vaclav Klaus
By the time I returned to Czechoslovakia, I had an understanding of the principles of the market.
Vaclav Klaus
I never intended to be a politician or office-seeker.
Vaclav Klaus
I am afraid there are people who want to stop the economic growth, the rise in the standard of living (though not their own) and the ability of man to use the expanding wealth, science and technology for solving the actual pressing problems of mankind, especially of the developing countries.
Vaclav Klaus
People like me who were engaging in brinkmanship with the party economic bosses and the open dissidents who were being arrested were pursuing a common goal in different ways.
Vaclav Klaus
I was paid to read Western economic texts. In a way, the regime paid for their own undermining.
Vaclav Klaus
To talk about planning an economic system is to talk in old terms, and I find myself sometimes having to teach Westerners about what the market really means.
Vaclav Klaus
EU expansion is, unfortunately, continuing without a constitution, as a gradual process of standardization - and that's far more dangerous. It is very difficult to slow down this process, which is being pushed forward without significant public participation.
Vaclav Klaus
I also helped write the five-page statement of principles that Civic Forum issued in late November. That was the first public expression of what the new government wanted to do.
Vaclav Klaus
Environmentalism is a dangerous ideology endangering human freedom.
Vaclav Klaus
Common foreign policy is completely unnecessary. The various European countries have widely differing priorities, goals and prejudices. It would be wrong to force them all to follow the same course.
Vaclav Klaus