Klaus wary of economy in 2012

Tighten your belts, be economically realistic, and do not give in to the pressures of certain civil society groups.

Those are the main messages communicated by President Václav Klaus during his ninth annual New Year's Day address to the nation, broadcast from his office at Prague Castle Jan. 1.

In a speech full of cryptic allusions that have come to characterize the Euroskeptic president's annual addresses, Klaus focused on economic pragmatism, commending citizens for their hard work and advising them to brace themselves for the economic fallout the nation will face as a result of European Union-wide recession.

"Unfortunately, I cannot rule out the possibility that the problems of some countries will deepen in the coming months, and Europe will fall back into recession. This would affect us as well," Klaus said. "The year 2012 will probably not be among the easiest."

He went on to emphasize the Czech economy was strong at its core, reminding listeners the country had been spared from looting demonstrators, mass immigration and bankruptcy - all of which he said plagued other European countries in 2011.

"Although significant problems exist here, and I don't mean to trivialize them, they are smaller than those faced by the majority of neighboring countries," Klaus said.

He devoted about half of his speech to a general criticism of domestic social and political problems. One of the biggest culprits of the current economic hardship is a public sense of entitlement to higher wages and social benefits, without regard for whether the current economic situation can afford them, he said.

"The unrealistic expectations regarding EU entry and the promised gains it was supposed to bring us have not been fulfilled. We raised the threshold of our expectations and demands too high."

Despite multiple allusions to the EU's damaging effect on the economy, observers said Klaus' speech was relatively gentle in tone compared with past addresses, in which he has openly lambasted EU policy.

"What surprised me most was how unsurprising it was," said political analyst Jiří Pehe. "He wasn't all that much on the attack against the European Union, for example."

Elsewhere in his speech, Klaus criticized the existence of unnamed "pressure groups" that "still refuse to understand it is not possible to gain from the loss of others and that a redistribution of the country's wealth for their benefit is not possible."

Far from referring to the opaque lobbying groups that often mar the reputation of state politics, this comment, much discussed in the press, was an apparent reference to at the 2011 gay pride parade, as well as to various labor movements that garnered media and political attention.

"There was this very small off-handed remark about pressure groups, by which he meant unions, the doctors who went on strike and, if you recall, even his opposition to gay pride activities," Pehe said. "What is he talking about? It is the system of mafioso capitalism that Klaus constructed that allowed behind-the-scenes pressure groups to have influence."

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at
features@praguepost.com