The Czech president has finally showed his cards. He will not ratify the Lisbon Treaty, unless the Czech Republic gets opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The official reason – Klaus believes that the Charter will give the Sudeten Germans the opportunity to claim back the properties they have lost after being forcefully “resettled” (a euphemism for “being expelled”) after WWII on the basis of Benes Decrees. Klaus´s move could be explained in three ways.
The first possibility is that Klaus really is a kind of modern Ján Žižka, Hussites´ leader defending the Czech sovereignty against malicious machinations of eurobureaucrats and crypto-socialists. His condition should only help to hold back the ratification process until next spring, when Tories win the UK elections, and organise referendum on the Treaty. Its result will be most probably negative. Even if it is unclear, how the new UK government could take back its signature from already ratified Treaty, if nothing it will postpone the time when it enters into force.
There is a second explanation – that it´s just a cover for his political backdown. After the Irish clear yeas (albeit on the second try) and the complete ratification in Poland, the Czech Republic is the only country blocking the Treaty. Political pressure is mounting. The Czech president has few reasons to expert that the Constitutional Court will proclaim anything else than the compliance of the Treaty with the Czech legal order. Even worse it seems that the public opinion is turning against him. And Klaus really cares about his popularity. Therefore he needs to find a way to score politically even if backing down. Beneš Decrees and demands of Sudeten Germans are among the strongest historic-political traumas of the Czechs – so they provide a good cover.
And finally, it is possible that Klaus actually does not want to be the “sole defender” of national sovereignty against the hordes of eurofederalists, waiting bravely for his ideological brothers from the UK Conservative Party. His interest is much narrower – for some reason he really fears that Sudeten Germans could get through the European court something, which they would demand in vain from Czech courts (which is, actually, an interesting illustration of his opinion on the “impartiality of justice”). So he is using political blackmail to get necessary assurances.
In fact, there are several reasons why the last scenario looks the most plausible one. First, if he only wants to hold back the process till spring 2010, he would not need any “footnote” – at least not now. He is sufficiently politically covered by the appeal on the Constitutional Court. Then, let´s suppose that the EU leaders would fulfil his demand on the October summit – his position would in fact weaken. He has revealed his cards, got what he wanted, now he should sign the pact.
The second indication is his Friday reaction. Swedish PM said to media on Thursday that he had a telephone call from President Klaus, who has demanded some unspecified “footnote” regarding the Charter. Immediately speculations arose. Then, on Friday, Czech president calls the press conference and reveals his cards. Obviously angered he says that the PM Reinfeldt has disclosed their private conversation, therefore he has to put cards on the table. It seems as if he was first planning to prepare ground among the EU leaders and only then go public with his demand.
Whatever the reason, blocking the Lisbon Treaty is getting more and more unsustainable for Klaus. It seems characteristic that this vocal “eurosceptic” drags into his fight against the document, which should bring Europe even closer, ghosts from the past, when Europe was tragically divided.
