Former Czech president - Václav Klaus - says there is an extraordinary attack by state power on freedom

Attacks on freedom have historically always been conducted under the guise of higher goals.

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Václav Klaus is the former president of the Czech Republic and succeeded Václav Havel. He is an economist and politician but fundamentally a man with strong opinions on freedom.

Klaus is famously a Eurosceptic and refused to sign the Lisbon Treaty until he was the only one left. He does not think that global warming is anthropogenic and described the IPCC as “a group of politicised scientists with one-sided opinions and one-sided assignments”.

In 2020, he refused to wear a face mask, in breach of COVID-19 restrictions and was fined as a consequence.

The video of his latest statement (25 January) is in Czech but the translation, via DeepL, is below.

Dear fellow citizens,

At this moment, there is an extraordinary attack by state power on freedom, democratic order and constitutionally protected rights.

In an abbreviated process - that is, in a legislative emergency mode that bypasses the proper public social and legal debate - a government bill is being debated to allow the state - in a crude manner and under threat of draconian sanctions - to restrict constitutionally protected fundamental civil liberties by decree of three ministers.

The amendment to the Pandemic Bill puts in the hands of ministerial officials the ability to impose a de facto state of war and freeze life without the approval of the government and parliament. What is particularly alarming is the manner in which this law is being passed, with the aim of interfering with the separation of powers, limiting the independence of the judiciary and strengthening the repressive functions of the state within hours, and this haste is justified by the alleged threat of an autumn 'wave' of COVID-19.

Attacks on freedom have historically always been conducted under the guise of higher goals. Let us not allow such repressive power to be given to selected ministerial apparatuses under the pretext of protecting the health of the population.