Czech crisis raises spectre of the nineteen-thirties

Impeaching President Vaclav Klaus, carries the whiff of panic and hysteria for this observer, but such were the reports in yesterday's Sunday Times, linked here, from which comes this quote:

“I have always considered this treaty a step in the wrong direction,” Klaus said. As he is well aware, the slightest change to the treaty, which was first proposed in 2001, would require all 27 EU member countries to agree.

His remarks were greeted with outrage in Europe. German and French diplomats, in talks with their Czech counterparts, explored two ways of removing the Klaus obstacle: impeach him or change the Czech constitution to take away his right of veto.

“If the president is obstructing the democratic process and opposing the decision of parliament as well as the will of the people, he is moving beyond the law and will need to face the consequences,” a German diplomat told The Sunday Times.

The details of the nature of the guarantees now required by President Klaus, as explained on EurActiv, this morning, linked here, certainly seem more difficult than were being reported earlier in the weekend, but the drastic step of endeavouring to remove the Head of State of one of the smaller EU member states, as is reportedly being considered by France and Germany, would surely rouse even those two countries' hibernating populations to the growing dangers all of us in the EU are now facing. The means of the Lisbon Treaty ratification make it daily ever clearer that the intended constitution will never be accepted by democratic Europeans!