Czech President Klaus assesses post-1989 development in new book

In the book he sums up his view on the fall of communism, on the 1990s, when he was Czech prime minister, on the current state of Czech politics, on the EU and on the Czech Republic's prospects.

Klaus said the book contains neither his personal memoirs nor does it highlight behind-the-scenes of top politics.

This is no narration such as who met whom but rather a mediation in terms of social sciences, Klaus said.

Klaus, who has held leading political posts in the past two decades, has issued tens of books meanwhile. His stands on the economic and political development in the Czech Republic are also known from his speeches and statements for the media.

In his book Klaus reiterates that communism ended in 1989 due to its internal collapse rather than victorious pressure from outside.

"The particular dissident attempts, far from a mass movement, did have a certain importance, and there is no reason to play down, but they did not bother the communist power excessively, nor did they mobilise any broad-based protest of citizens," Klaus writes in the book.

Klaus's predecessor in the presidential post and former political rival, Vaclav Havel, was a leading dissident under the communist regime.

Klaus also sums up his arguments in support of the country's economic transformation in the 1990s which he supervised in his capacity as finance minister and later prime minister.

He also briefly criticises the progressing European integration.

Klaus told reporters today that he started to write the book five years ago. The forthcoming 20th anniversary of the fall of communism motivated him to complete the work.

"This year I had an impression that it would be good to write something as a present to mark anniversary of November 17 [1989 when the Velvet Revolution broke out in Czechoslovakia]," Klaus said.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz