Prague, Nov 9 (CTK) – The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president is beneficial for both the USA and the Czech Republic, because the world of hypocrisy and freedom of speech suppression has been defeated and ordinary people have beaten political elites, former Czech president Vaclav Klaus said yesterday.
Trump’s victory amounts to a cruel settling of accounts with outgoing President Barack Obama and his policy, Klaus, former rightist prime minister (1992-1997) and president (2003-2013) said.
“The U.S. elections have been won by the people who are normal, ordinary and use common sense. They have beaten political elites and the political establishment. They have beaten the manipulative campaign pursued by the united media front. They have beaten the most influential and most powerful groups of interest,” Klaus said.
He said he believes that Brexit, together with the revolutionary victory of Trump, will provoke a chain reaction in European countries.
Europe needed these impulses, he said.
The world of political correctness and hypocrisy has been defeated, Klaus continued, adding that many Czechs adhere to this world as well.
“The defeat has crushed the political stream that has dominated for a quarter of a century now and that has different names and different representatives in various countries. In our country, we call them the Havelites,” Klaus said, alluding to the late Vaclav Havel, former dissident and the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic.
Czech-born economist and Columbia University Professor Jan Svejnar, who lost the Czech presidential election to Klaus in 2008, said Trump’s election brings about a large portion of uncertainty and risk.
Trump’s toying with NATO-related issues is very dangerous, Svejnar told the weekly Respekt.
He said Trump will tend to isolate the USA and thereby force Europe to start dealing with its own problems more intensively.
“Trump is a man with whom we do not know how he will develop,” Svejnar said.
He said Columbia University has always invited presidential candidates’ economic aides for a debate before elections, but no such debate took place this time. It was not clear whom to invite as Trump’s representative, Svejnar said.
He said people in the USA are dissatisfied with the outcome of globalisation. The failure of Trump’s Democrat rival, Hillary Clinton, is a revolt against the establishment. People’s negative assessment of the Clinton family played a role as well, he said.
Tomas Prouza, the Czech state secretary for the EU, said the election result brings a warning that hatred and populism are becoming an effective election programme.
Alexandr Vondra, former ambassador to the USA, told Czech Radio that he considers the election result a revolution of the lower middle class against the elites.
He ascribed Hillary Clinton’s failure to her being less charismatic than her husband, the ex-president, and to scandals surrounding her.
According to Vondra, Trump will not pursue a policy based on values, and he will focus on domestic policy.
