An incisive perspective from Václav Klaus in “Interview With Václav Klaus: Our Freedom Is Endangered“:
Global Gold: And what parallels do you see between Western Europe and the communism you lived under?
Václav Klaus: I don’t want to look for easy analogies. In our part of the world it is very difficult to say that Brussels is similar to the former communist Moscow. But when I look at the political, economic and social system in the European Union I see many similarities. I would have never expected that there will be so much regulation and so much state power as there is now. I would have never expected that the people would believe so much in the state and not in the market.
I would have never believed that after the fall of communism, government failure would be so underestimated vis-à-vis market failure. We enjoy much more freedom in comparison to our past, but at the same time, when I compare my expectations to the current reality, I see something that I call the expectation-reality gap. In other words, I expected that I would be living in a much freer society than I do now.
Global Gold: We believe there is a massive power shift underway from the West to the East, whether economically, militarily, etc.. Do you see this power shift as well? We get the feeling that most of the West is unaware or blind towards the fact that this paradigm shift is underway; they are still concentrated on the West. What is your opinion on that?
Václav Klaus: Definitely. I think that many people, especially in Europe still live in a nirvana of self-satisfaction and do not consider that the European economy has been stagnating for a very long time, whereas the rest of the world has been moving upward. We tragically underestimate this fact. I am absolutely shocked that the European politicians, business people, and intellectuals don’t take this issue seriously.
Global Gold: This brings us to the “Charlie Hebdo” attack in France that I wanted to ask you about. What do you believe is the root cause of what happened? Do you think that this tragedy will be misused by the political elites to further circumvent individual liberty in Europe by using more control and every possible excuse for security reasons to watch every step of the citizens?
Václav Klaus: We experienced it in 2001 in America and it had very negative repercussions for us in Europe. I am afraid there will be a new wave of attempts to limit our personal freedom due to the so-called fighting of terrorism. I think it is wrong to concentrate on the tragic event in Paris. At the same day of the Paris attacks an estimated 2000 people were killed by terrorists in Nigeria. But in Paris, of course, it was closer to us. We should look for the reasons behind what happened here and there. I am afraid that the main reason is twofold.
One of them is the erroneous idea of multiculturalism which is destroying our societies and the other is a parallel-going concept, the doctrine of universalism. The fall of communism allowed for a sort of ideological vacuum, which was very rapidly filled by the export of democracy and of our concept of human rights from the West to the rest of the world. And this is a totally wrong idea. It created many unsuccessful wars and destabilized countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. The export of Western-style democracy and of new universalism created a reaction. This reaction came with another form of universalism, with Islamism. Those are twin brothers, I would say. Multiculturalism and the doctrine of universalism are for me the roots of terrorism.
