Final Word from Monday, May 9, 2005
Václav Klaus's remarks for the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II were written in code but weren't difficult to decrypt. On the surface, he was giving credit to the Soviet Union for liberating Czechoslovakia and was warning against revisionist efforts to confuse the victims of the war with the instigators. Below the surface, though, he was reminding the Communists that he's their president too, and he was standing up for Russia (where he will be today) at a time when it's fashionable to condemn it for undemocratic behavior. It was Europe he indirectly accused of undemocratic behavior, by warning that the same kinds of dangers that led to World War II exist today. It was, after all, an attempt at the forced integration of parts of Europe that brought on the war and that threatened the very existence of the Czechs and other peoples of Europe. [Czech Republic European constitutional treaty Moscow USSR Soviets Two Second democracy]