Vaclav Fights the Dragon

[Oisín]

Vaclav Fights the Dragon

As our readers know, an angry verbal exchange between members of the European Parliaments (MEPs) and Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, took place on December 5, 2008 in the Prague Castle. Vaclav Klaus, soon-to-be president of the European Union for 6 months, replacing Nicolas Sarkozy, faced off with Brian Crowley, the Irish leader of the UEN party, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Green Franco-German politician, and Hans-Gert Pöttering, a German Christian-Democrat who is the president of the European Parliament.

The Observatoire de l'Europe reports that the row began when Brian Crowley, who would like to run for President of Ireland in 2011, accused President Klaus of having insulted the Irish people by dining in Dublin with Declan Ganley, leader of the “no” faction opposed to the Treaty of Lisbon. The “no” faction won the Irish referendum on the Treaty. According to pro-EU politicians, such as Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the CIA, in a plot against the EU, poured hundreds of thousands of euros into Libertas, Ganley's anti-Lisbon movement. (When questioned, the surprised officials from the United States Congress responded: "Are you Europeans serious?")

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Diplomatic Language

Further to the great hoo hah over the tawdry behaviour of certain Members of the European Parliament during their visit to Prague castle the other week comes this little snippet.

Whilst President Vaclav Klaus was visiting Dublin there was an official dinner where he sat with the Irish Taoiseach, Brian Cowen. No doubt they had much to discuss.

Elsewhere the two first ladies were having a discussion. Mary Molloy, a member of the Lenihan political dynasty, remarked that the Irish had "voted wrongly" when they rejected the Lisbon Treaty. Livia Klausová, a respected economist, responded, "Well, were they wrong when they elected your husband?"

Given that Cowen, like British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, was not elected as PM this was, dare I say it, a little tart.

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