Final Word from Monday, May 27, 2002
Václav Klaus said in Právo on Sat. that it's important to maintain a homogeneous Czech society. He was born into such a society, he said, and he wants to die in it too. This is much more important to him than adopting a fashionable concept like multiculturalism, which he said is on the wane anyway. ODS's concern over illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers, he said, isn't aimed at something as trivial as Vietnamese merchants or Ukrainian workers. It's about avoiding the instability that multiculturalism brings. He added that he has nothing against a heterogeneous Europe, but he doesn't want strangers living in his own home. He stressed that this is only a minor point in ODS's campaign. What he didn't say is how an ODS cabinet would lead the CR into the multicultural European Union and at the same time maintain a homogeneous Czech society.