President Klaus in US: global crisis “just price” for interfering with free market

President Václav Klaus concluded his tour of the United States on Monday during which the Czech head of state added another theme to his global agenda. Speaking at several events on the US West and East Coasts, the Czech president slammed belief in strong government, saying that the current economic downturn was a “just price” to be paid for politicians’ attempts to interfere with the free market.

Václav Klaus in Santa Barbara, photo: CTK

The Czech president has returned from his second trip to the United States in less than a year. Last May, he attended the Washington launch of his book “Blue Planet in Green Shackles”, in which he vigorously denies the existence of man-made global warming. This year, he told a Wall Street Journal conference in Santa Barbara, California, that he was surprised by the overwhelming belief in the role of governments when tackling the global economic crisis.

“Sitting here in this room in the last two hours and the coming from, first Europe, and, second, from a former communist country where I spent most of my life, I almost don't believe my eyes to see how much you believe in government and how much you don't believe in the market. This is for me a shocking experience. And I have to say that very loudly.”

Mr Klaus, who has recently compared the economic crisis to the common flu that will pass with or without remedy, was surprised to see how much attention Americans pay to the Obama administration’s plans to boost the economy. Two days before the World Bank predicted that this year, the global world economy would shrink for the first time since WWII, the Czech president said the crisis was a “just price” the world has to pay for interfering with free market.

“I don’t think that the current problem in the world, and even in this country, is an example of a market failure. I think it’s an example of a government failure; I’m absolutely sure that the current crisis is the just price all of us have to pay for the attempts of politicians to play with the market. I’m not the one who would say that we should blame the market. No. Blame the politicians for that.”

Václav Klaus, photo: CTK

From California, Václav Klaus moved on to New York City, where he spoke at what has been labelled as the largest ever gathering of climate change deniers. The conference, organized by the conservative Heartland Institute, brought together “political figures, conservative campaigners, scientists, an Apollo astronaut and the president of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus,” as the New York Times pointed out. Václav Klaus once again stressed that environmentalism posed a much bigger danger for human freedom than global warming.

“The subtitle of my book is, “What is in danger, climate or freedom?”, and I would add, “and prosperity?”, so my answer to that question is that climate is ok.”

Notably, the Czech president’s trip did not include a stop at the White House. But Václav Klaus will have an opportunity to share his views directly with American president Barack Obama, who is coming to Prague in April for an EU-US summit.