The heretical Czechs
Sep 4th 2008
From The Economist print edition
The pragmatic sceptics who will have the next EuropeanUnion
presidency
THROUGHOUT history, heretics have
faced unusually horrid punishments--
and it is no mystery why. Most faithbased
systems can withstand the
threat from non-believers, sinners and
the like. But heretics are a menace
from within: dissenting believers, who
question key articles of faith. When it
comes to the faith-based project of
European political integration, the
Czech Republic is a dangerously
heretical place. This does not mean
that the Czechs are hostile to the
European Union--though many in
Brussels lazily put them high up in their lists of "Eurosceptics". Rather, the Czechs
have a taste for something more subversive: the questioning of big planks of EU
conventional wisdom.
This matters a lot right now. On January 1st the Czechs will take over the rotating
presidency of the EU, chairing all meetings and setting the agenda for the
following six months. The future of the Lisbon treaty is sure to come up on their
watch, as the Irish government scrambles to find ways to overcome the no vote
cast by its electorate last June. And in foreign policy, it is a safe bet that Russia
will muscle its way up the EU's agenda in 2009.
On both fronts, the Czechs are guilty of heterodoxy. British Conservatives like to
claim the centre-right Civic Democrats, known by their Czech initials as the ODS,
as their closest ideological allies in Europe. (We are identical, a Tory member of
the European Parliament supposedly boasted, except that they don't understand
cricket.) This is not strictly correct. The British Tories say they will try to scupper
Lisbon if it is not in force by the time they come to power. In contrast, the ODSled
Czech government is committed to ratifying the text, probably by the end of
the year.
That said, Czech ministers do not buy the French or German line that Lisbon is a
vital treaty that will magically transform the union into a world power. Some big
EU countries depict the loss of Lisbon as a catastrophe, comments the foreign
minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, but "of course it is not." Losing Lisbon would
"make life difficult", he concedes, and would be hard to explain to voters after so
many years of fuss. But the EU works with its current rules "quite well", so the
Irish vote is "not the end of the world." Some fervent Europeans want Ireland to
be threatened with expulsion from the EU if they do not ratify Lisbon soon. A
Czech presidency would not stand for such bullying.
When it comes to Russia, the Czechs are heretics, too. They are less vocally
hawkish than Poland and the Baltic states. But Czech leaders do not, deep down,
believe in the EU's common line on Russia, which amounts to the rationalisation
of impotence. The current consensus is that proffering the hand of friendship is a
sound strategy because Russia will one day realise that co-operation is in its
interests. Senior Czechs say this is not a strategy, it is just verbiage. They also
suspect the EU will need a real Russia strategy quite soon.
On a 2007 visit to talk over EU affairs, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel,
said the Czechs reminded her of modern-day Hussites--followers of Jan Hus, who
was burnt at the stake in 1415 for challenging the Roman Catholic Church. This
was a shrewd observation, says Alexandr Vondra, a deputy prime minister. The
Hussite movement was crushed amid bitter in-fighting, and the Czechs remained
Catholic. But Hus remains a national hero, and his legacy helps to explain why
Czech views of the EU differ from those of such neighbours as Germany or
Slovakia. Mr Vondra suggests that Czechs think like "classic reformation
countries", such as the Netherlands or Sweden.
The Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, is an arch-critic of the EU (he has called the
Lisbon treaty "detrimental to freedom and democracy"). Mr Klaus's powers are
mostly ceremonial, but he has influence. The Czechs have yet to ratify Lisbon,
after Mr Klaus's ODS allies in the upper-house Senate demanded that the text be
sent to the constitutional court for vetting. But Mr Klaus's clout has limits. The
court is expected to approve Lisbon, paving the way for a tight parliamentary
vote at the end of the year (a three-fifths majority is needed in both houses:
perhaps a quarter of the Senate are Eurosceptics in the Klaus mould). There is
also a big gap between Mr Klaus and the voters. Two-thirds of Czechs told the
latest Eurobarometer poll that their country has benefited from membership,
above the EU average. And ODS voters are more pro-European than most others.
Jiri Pehe, a one-time aide to Mr Klaus's predecessor, Vaclav Havel, explains that
Czechs see their presidents as philosopher-kings, whose strong opinions may not
have concrete implications for everyday action. Many Czechs adored Mr Havel, he
notes, and they loved hearing him denounce consumerism. Then they went
shopping, because they were "consumerist as hell".
Mr Schwarzenberg, in private life a prince with roots in both the Czech Republic
and Austria, draws a revealing comparison between the two countries. Both feel
what he calls "fed-upness" with EU rules that impinge on local traditions, such as
hunting. But Austrian grumpiness goes much deeper. Both countries gained when
the EU enlarged to take in countries from the former communist block: the
Czechs because they got in, and the Austrians because they made a mint in the
east. Yet Austrians have never accepted that the EU helped secure these eastern
markets for them. They think they were "so good, and so modern" that they
would have cleaned up anyway, says Mr Schwarzenberg.
Czechs see what they have gained, and accordingly want the EU to work. It is
just that they are not interested in how. History has taught Czechs to think
sceptically, says Mr Vondra. As a much-invaded people, Czechs "have problems
approaching anything with excitement." Czechs believe in Europe, but not in the
grandiose visions of the project: the endless treaties and institutional changes
that will solve all problems. In Brussels such pragmatism is heretical. Next year
promises to be interesting.