Václav Klaus

Václav Klaus (born 19 June 1941 in Prague) is a Czech politician and economist. He was chairman of the OF (1990-1991) and ODS ( 1991-2002 ). In addition, he held the highest offices of state of the Czech Republic: From 1992 to 1998 he was Prime Minister from 1998 to 2002 Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies and 2003-2013 president. Together with the Slovaks Vladimir Meciar he was responsible for the division of Czechoslovakia into two sovereign states at the beginning of 1993.

Life

His study of foreign trade economy closed Klaus 1963 at the Prague University of Economics ( VSE ) from. In the 1960s, he completed studies in Italy and the USA. From 1971 to 1986 he worked in various positions at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences ( ČSAV ), the Czechoslovak Central Bank ( Státní banka Československé, Czechoslovak State Bank, today CNB ) ( ústav Prognostický ) and most recently at the Prognostic Institute of the Academy of Sciences, where he dealt with macroeconomics. He has given seminars and lectures at the CNB, but also in private, the dissident circles close, but without identifying too strongly with them. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.

He was from July 1992 to January 1998 the Czech Prime Minister. In February 2003 he was elected President of the Czech Republic. He is regarded as the main man behind the reforms to a free market economy in the Czech Republic and as the man who - together with the Slovaks Vladimir Meciar - has contributed most to Dismembration Czechoslovakia.

Klaus is married to Livia Klausová, born Mištinová, the daughter of a former employee of the State Security apparatus of the fascist First Slovak Republic. The couple has two sons Klaus and five grandchildren. His son Václav Klaus jun. is Director of Elite Prague High School.

" Velvet Revolution " and ODS

While the changes in November 1989, which soon became known as the "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia, he was initially on the side of Václav Havel, and was from October 1990 President of the Civic Forum ( Občanské fórum, OF). In December 1989 he became Czechoslovak finance minister, deputy prime minister in 1991 also. 1991 disintegrated Civic Forum in the left-liberal civil rights movement ( Občanské hnutí, OH ) under Foreign Minister Jiří service beer and the conservative- liberal Civic Democratic Party ( Občanská demokratická strana, ODS), chaired by Klaus held until 2002.

In July 1992, the ODS emerged both in elections to the Czech National Council and the Federal Assembly as the winner in the Czech Republic. Klaus was then Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. He came to the conclusion that a further continuation of the Czechoslovakia was not effective. After negotiations with the Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, the division of the state as a whole was completed in two independent republics on 1 January 1993, although more than two-thirds of the population in both parts of the country for a receipt of Czechoslovakia. Of the division opponents he is criticized to this day. 1996 Klaus was confirmed in office after the election victory of ODS.

The reign of Václav Klaus was marked by a radical market-oriented economic policies, the structure of Czech statehood and the anchoring into Western structures with simultaneous capping of connections to Eastern Europe. While the government advanced the NATO despite great skepticism among the population, she followed the path towards the EU and behave with partly clear criticism of the Brussels " dirigisme ". Klaus ' sometimes authoritarian and by many critics referred to as arrogant political style led to tensions within the ruling coalition.

With the breakup of the government coalition as a result of donations scandal he was forced to resign as prime minister in November 1997. He remained until the assumption of office of the government of Josef Tošovský on 2 January 1998 business leaders in office.

His party supported by the early elections in July 1998, the minority government of the CSSD ( Czech Social Democratic Party ). Klaus and Miloš Zeman, his successor as prime minister, signed the so-called "opposition agreement ", they have also initiated together. Due to complicated power struggles within the CSSD Klaus was elected as a representative of ODS chairman of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament.

After the electoral defeat of the ODS in June 2002 - after the Social Democrat Prime Minister Vladimír Špidla was - he resigned as party chairman and became honorary chairman of the ODS. The latter post he resigned on December 6, 2008 after he had fallen out with the party leadership under Mirek Topolánek in his view, because of their pro-EU course.

President and political line

On 28 February 2003 Klaus was elected by a narrow majority for President of the Czech Republic after the post of head of state had been vacant after a few failed call attempts for almost a month. As was probably true the majority of the Communist deputies for him, he was accused of having secretly colluded with them.

On 15 February 2008 Klaus was elected for another term as president. In the third vote the second round of both Houses of Parliament, he received the necessary number of votes.

Klaus describes himself as a supporter of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.

Klaus spoke out repeatedly against the legal equality of homosexuals and vetoed against the introduction of registered civil partnership ( " registrované Partnerství " ), which he described as a state " over-regulation ".

Václav Klaus sees himself as a classical liberal and supporter of the free market economy. With his political positions Klaus is in marked contrast to his predecessor as president, Václav Havel, who was one of his harshest critics.

Klaus is also known for not consider global warming as a big risk. He disclaims any climate-regulating action. In several speeches, even before the European Parliament and of the UN General Assembly, he doubted the crucial role of human beings in the realization of climate change. He wrote a book translated into several languages ​​( " Blue Planet in Green Shackles " ), in which he describes the climate as "eco- terrorism."

He defended the maintenance of the so-called Beneš decrees and has repeatedly expressed skepticism of the EU. In particular, he sees the sovereignty of the Member States by the Treaty of Lisbon at risk, which he rejects strict. In a speech to the European Parliament on 19 February 2009, he brought this rejection again significantly to the language, prompting several members left the Chamber in protest during the speech. The Lisbon Treaty was approved by both chambers of the Czech Parliament, but was blocked until the last of Klaus, who refused to sign. Immediately after a decision of the Czech Constitutional Court in Brno on the input of a group of senators to the Treaty of Lisbon Václav Klaus has signed the Czech ratification on 3 November 2009 on the Lisbon Treaty, however. The Constitutional Court had stressed in the announcement of its decision that such a blocking international agreements to limit obstruction. Klaus has also been criticized by members of the public and some media that he had exceeded his authority and tries to impose his personal opinion than that of the Czech Republic. "The Czechs do not live in a presidential dictatorship or in a presidential system. Even if Klaus has asked the Government to the opt-out negotiations with the EU ', he has no authority to, as this is solely a matter of the Parliament by the Czech constitution. "

On March 4, 2013, a few days before his retirement from the presidency, the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, accusing Klaus before the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic for high treason decided. Is justified by the reproach especially with a possessed by Klaus at the beginning of 2013 amnesty for thousands of prisoners. Due to the amnesty trials of the accused were set Finanzbetrügerei that many Czechs are said to have brought a lot of money. In addition, the action is justified by repeated delays in the appointment of constitutional judges and the refusal to conclude with his signature, the ratification of the Treaty on the European Stability Mechanism. However, the Constitutional Court announced on March 27, 2013, that it would not initiate proceedings because Klaus was no longer in office already. Its content expressed therefore not on the allegations.

Honors and Awards

• He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Finance Government of the Russian Federation.
• In May 1996, his honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Economics, University of Passau, was awarded for his contribution to the introduction of the market economy in the Czech Republic.
• * 1999: Bernhard Harms Medal of the Institute for the World Economy Kiel
• In 2004, he was the patron of the 19th Schleswig -Holstein Music Festival, which was longing to Prague under the motto.
• In February 2007 he received an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Dresden for his commitment as a European profiled industry expert and his contribution to the introduction of the free market economy in the Czech Republic.
• In October 2007 he was made an honorary Doctor of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem Ústí nad Labem.
• On 10 May 2009, he received from the hand of former German President Roman Herzog in Freiburg im Breisgau, the International Prize of the Friedrich- August-von - Hayek -Stiftung for his steadfast commitment to a free market economy, as well as his years, steady commitment and his great personal closeness to the principles of Friedrich August von Hayek has developed and championed in his scientific writings.
• In 2009 he received the Great Star of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria.

Publications

• Europe?, Context publisher, Augsburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-939645-35-1.
• Blue Planet in Green Shackles. What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom, Carl Gerold's son, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-900812-15-7? .