Prague, Jan 29 (CTK) – About four hundred people attended the funeral of Czech Communist (KSCM) politician Miloslav Ransdorf, who was a member of the European Parliament and died unexpectedly at the age of 62 last month, at the Prague-Strasnice crematorium on Friday.
“Big brain, contradictory personality. He stood out from the crowd and this often made him a target,” KSCM deputy chairman Jiri Dolejs said.
“He can hardly be replaced because I certainly will not learn 20 languages,” said Jaromir Kohlicek, who will replace Ransdorf in the European Parliament.
“I have very good memories of him from the Prognostic Institute from the 1980s when his range of knowledge was extraordinary and we who were younger were amazed by it,” Industry and Trade Minister Jan Mladek (Social Democrats, CSSD) said.
Some politicians mentioned the problems that Ransdorf had in life.
Former KSCM leader Miroslav Grebenicek said the field of politics in fact seemed a waste of Ransdorf’s erudition. “If he had remained in the academic world, he would have certainly been a respectable professor and he would certainly not have had to deal with so many difficulties, which he got in through politics,” Grebenicek said.
Last December, the Swiss police detained Ransdorf, together with three Slovaks, in a Zurich bank and prosecution was launched against them on suspicion of property delicts.
Ransdorf, who suspended his membership in the EP’s group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left over the case, dismissed any wrongdoing on his part.
He suffered from diabetes and his condition reportedly deteriorated after his recent arrest in Switzerland.
After taking a loan for a villa, Ransdorf was unable to settle the high debts and faced a distraint. He said he paid all his debts by 2013.
Ransdorf, historian and philosopher by profession, was a member of Czechoslovak and later Czech parliament from the early 1990s to 2004 when he joined the EP.
