David Kral: Czech government plays a surprising game over Lisbon treaty
However, the situation is not that simple, says David Kral, the director of the Prague-based European Institute for European Politics. He believes there is still no consensus on this issue.
“Nothing is clear yet as of today”, says David Kral. “There is no consensus on this issue within the country. The only clear thing is that the main opposition party of Social Democrats insists on the ratifications and is trying to push the Lisbon treaty through the parliament”.
Within the government, the situation is more complex. There are parties and politicians who would like to continue with the ratification of the Lisbon treaty, because they face a strong pressure from other EU members. But there is also a rather powerful block in the Czech government which does not like the treaty. Therefore, they support Ireland. This situation is quite slippery, says David Kral.
“I would describe it as a quite slippery situation for the Czech PM, because he must fight with the opposition on the one hand and to fight with his own party and those opposing the treaty, on the other hand”.
The politician is not sure that the Czech Republic and Ireland act in accordance to a certain common plan. At the upcoming summit of the Council of Europe, the Czech Republic is unlikely to put forward any alternative proposals, David Karol suggests.
“I don’t think that we will have any alternative proposals, because there will be a huge pressure from Germany and France. The government is forcing us into isolation. Britain supports ratification, PM Gordon Brown has already announced. As far as I know, Lech Kaczynski and the Polish government also said they would support the ratification of the treaty. It appears that only the Czech government is playing this surprising game when it is even unclear what Ireland will come up with”.
Apparently, the fate of the whole Europe depends on this “surprising game”.
