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Verner, Pavel
4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Klaus sabotages his government
The left-leaning daily Pravo writes: "It is to be expected of the [Czech] president that he supports the (pro-European) foreign policy of his government. Klaus, however, who regards himself as an 'EU dissident', is deliberately sabotaging this policy. When he met with Ganley, an opponent of the Irish government's policy, it was not in his capacity as a professor from Prague. Unfortunately he was speaking for the Czech Republic. .. Irish foreign minister Micheál Martin spoke yesterday about a diplomatic faux pas. This is not only a disgrace for our president, but a disservice to Czech policy as a whole. He put a spanner in the works of the government, which is just gearing up for its EU Council presidency. That verges on the criminal."
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More from the press review on the subject » EU Constitution, » Domestic Policy, » Ireland, » Czech Republic, » Europe
The misery of EU statistics
Pavel Verner describes a report on criminality compiled by the European Commission as an example of the "misery of statistics". The report classifies the Scandinavian countries as particularly dangerous. "I have been in all the capitals of Western Europe and - with the exception of Madrid - always felt safer than in Prague. That's why the EU statistics took my breath away. Sweden is supposedly the most dangerous country, yet for me, the country is an idyllic paradise with minimal crime. Romania and Bulgaria are reportedly among the safest countries. Yet in Bulgaria particularly, every responsible local warns you not to travel alone. The explanation for these statistics is simple. Things that we simply dismiss here are regarded as crimes in Sweden, Belgium or the United Kingdom."
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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Europe
Forming governments in the Czech Republic and Austria
In Austria, a grand coalition has formed, and in the Czech Republic, President Vaclav Klaus yesterday swore in a new government of Conservatives, Christian Democrats and Greens. While in Vienna the government is stable, the future of Prague's cabinet is insecure; in order to get a vote of confidence in parliament, help will be needed from defectors from the opposition. "Vaclav Klaus has not wished the new government success or luck," notes Pavel Verner. "But he has to appoint them, because the Conservative leadership has refused to discuss a grand coalition with the Social Democrats... This unwillingness must have doubly angered the president, because everything went so smoothly in Austria. There, the Social Democrats claimed a narrow victory over the People's Part; here, similarly, the Conservative Topolanek narrowly defeated the Social Democrat Paroubek. There is no love lost between the competitors in Vienna, and they continue to fight about the purchase of Eurofighter jets. Yet Gusenbauer did not need seven months to form a government. It did not even take him three."
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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Czech Republic, » Austria
Denial of National Socialist Persecution of Roma
A nationalist group is planning to erect a special kind of memorial stone on the site of a Nazi concentration camp for Roma in south Bohemia. On the stone will be written that this was merely a labour camp, thereby denying that it was once a concentration camp. Paul Verner agrees with those expressing outrage. "The project is aimed at testing how many racist provocations the Czech state is willing to put up with... Unfortunately, this means that influential politicians such as President Vaclav Klaus and the communist EU representative Miloslav Ransdorf act as chief witnesses for the neo-Nazis. They too once denied that the concentration camp had been anything more than a labour camp. In doing so, they gave racists an ideological alibi."
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More from the press review on the subject » History, » Czech Republic
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