Vaclav Klaus

Vaclaz Klaus is set to become the new EU President. Chris Bowlby of the BBC writes,

For Mr Klaus, a steely, bespectacled economist who came to sudden prominence after the Czechoslovak revolution against communism, is a vehement Eurosceptic. He believes the EU has echoes of the old Soviet bloc he used to live under...And he is also an enthusiastic challenger of European and international policy on everything from climate change to relations with Russia.

I cannot say that I know much about Mr. Klaus, but what I do know, I like. He is an economist, and what is better still, a free-market economist.

The scary quote in the article was delivered by Vaclav Havel, the man he replaced as President of the Czech Republic, who said,

Either he's afraid of someone. Or he's out to humiliate him.

That sounds vaguely Nixonian to me, and I cannot like that. Well, Mr. Havel must be wrong, because Mr. Klaus is an economist, and an economist would never be Nixonian.