Václav Klaus quotes

It is what makes the reform process an art, not just a science. You have to develop a strategy that tells you what reform measures you should follow and in what sequence. (Václav Klaus)
Nevertheless, there is another threat on the horizon. I see this threat in environmentalism which is becoming a new dominant ideology, if not a religion. Its main weapon is raising the alarm and predicting the human life endangering climate change based on man-made global warming. View quote
Václav Klaus
Environmentalism is a dangerous ideology endangering human freedom. View quote
Václav Klaus
You cannot have democratic accountability in anything bigger than a nation state. View quote
Václav Klaus
I was paid to read Western economic texts. In a way, the regime paid for their own undermining. View quote
Václav Klaus
People like me who were engaging in brinkmanship with the party economic bosses and the open dissidents who were being arrested were pursuing a common goal in different ways. View quote
Václav Klaus
Privatization of the state-owned economy is not yet on the agenda. We cannot do it immediately; my colleagues would not agree to it. But we must put all forms of ownership on an equal footing immediately and let different types of ownership compete with the state firms. View quote
Václav Klaus
What we want is to establish the rules of a market economy - not to plan its outcome. View quote
Václav Klaus
By the time I returned to Czechoslovakia, I had an understanding of the principles of the market. View quote
Václav Klaus
We must have the time to create strict rules so that property is not sold by Communist managers for a low price. They often get payments under the table to sell to the first bidder. This does not build public support for a market economy. View quote
Václav Klaus
We must say openly that the present economic system of the EU is a system of a suppressed market, a system of a permanently strengthening centrally controlled economy. Although history has more than clearly proven that this is a dead end, we find ourselves walking the same path once again. This results in a constant rise in both the extent of government masterminding and constraining of spontaneity of the market processes. In recent months, this trend has been further reinforced by incorrect interpretation of the causes of the present economic and financial crisis, as if it was caused by free market, while in reality it is just the contrary – caused by political manipulation of the market. It is again necessary to point out to the historical experience of our part of Europe and to the lessons we learned from it. (Václav Klaus)
I also helped write the five-page statement of principles that Civic Forum issued in late November. That was the first public expression of what the new government wanted to do. View quote
Václav Klaus
It is obvious that the monetary union among 17 very different European countries does not work. As an economist, I know that the Eurozone is not an optimum currency area, as defined in economic theory. View quote
Václav Klaus
Then in 1969, I spent the spring term at Cornell University in New York. The invasion of August 1968 had already happened, but the hardline regime took several months to crack down on dissidents. View quote
Václav Klaus
To pursue a so-called Third Way is foolish. We had our experience with this in the 1960s when we looked for a socialism with a human face. It did not work, and we must be explicit that we are not aiming for a more efficient version of a system that has failed. View quote
Václav Klaus
The events in the square, of course, made a deep impression on me and many other parents. View quote
Václav Klaus
I never intended to be a politician or office-seeker. View quote
Václav Klaus
That means following a very restrictive fiscal and monetary policy which will squeeze the monopolies and cut their subsidies. On the micro level we will allow other economic agents, both domestic and foreign, to compete with them. View quote
Václav Klaus
We will also allow state companies to sell shares to their workers and will pass a law allowing citizens to start companies of their own with no limits on the number of employees or on the firm's output. View quote
Václav Klaus
To talk about planning an economic system is to talk in old terms, and I find myself sometimes having to teach Westers about what the market really means. View quote
Václav Klaus
The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity, is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism. (Václav Klaus)
I don't think there is any global warming. I don't see the statistical data for that. View quote
Václav Klaus
I'm absolutely convinced that the very small global warming we are experiencing is the result of natural causes. It's a cyclical phenomenon in the history of the Earth. The role of man is very small, almost negligible. View quote
Václav Klaus
I do not consider the Lisbon Treaty to be a good thing for Europe, for the freedom of Europe, or for the Czech Republic. View quote
Václav Klaus
We served on the editorial board of a literary monthly called Face in 1968 and 1969. He was a young writer, and I was also interested in broad cultural issues. We agreed on all major issues and became friends. View quote
Václav Klaus