He was the architect of Coupon Privatisation which lead to massive corruption, and the near destruction of the counrty's reputation as a place to do business, in the mid 1990's. The Zelezny, Ron Lauder, CME, fiasco provides an illustrative case, in which the Klaus's government failed to protect foreign investors. Czech tax payers are still paying Lauder for damages won in international courts.
As PM and head of the ODS party the neo-lib capitalist bachanalia was thrown into full throttle. A friend from Strakonice once described the time as "Prague threw a Party, and all the villages paid." Then came the autumn of 1997 when secret Swiss bank accounts were uncovered and it was further revealed that ODS contributors included long dead Austrians, clueless residents of Trinidad and Tobago, and shady figures in the US. More from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University - Prague
Of course many Czechs have to be the best at whatever they buy into, whether its Communism, Nazism, Conspicuous Consumerism or Gangster Capitalism, and so the ODS held on dearly to this Thatcherite wilfully unquestioning about how he obtained a post at the State Bank during the horrid period of Brezhnevite normalisation (the 1970's). Curiously, for someone supposedly publishing reformist articles during the Prague Spring, Klaus ended up with a choice position for a Czech of his background, when lawyers, journalists and engineers where reduced to cleaning windows, sweeping streets and stoking boilers.
As head of the ODS, which was formed when practical politicians (many former communists among them) pushed aside the dissidents of the Civic Forum in early 1990, he made a deal with Meciar in a park in Brno in the middle of the night to destroy the Slavic federation once dreamt of by Massaryk.
Corruption, having divided the country without a referendum, the ousting of the Charta 77 dissidents (look for his name among the signatures... look again real hard... between Mojimír Klánský and Oldřich Klein - post '79... maybe not), he was considered too divisive a figure to follow in Havel's footsteps as President. As in Germany the president is chosen by Parliament. The Social Democrats and minority parties searched long and hard for anyone, anyone but Klaus in 2003, but the ODS would not play ball. However they couldn't get enough votes to put him into office, until all other options were exhausted and he made a deal with the Communists.
It speaks poorly of the Czech political environment, (Děkujeme, Odjedte! Konečné Vole!) that four years on there is still no one who could take the job. Oh yes, and their "Green" party is now in coalition with Klaus's ODS. Martin Bursík, please speak up. L'inteligence sans volonté n'aboutit ŕ rien, n'est-ce pas?... Mais, la volonté sans intelligence?... Catastrophe!... Celine
Whoever it is, you can still go in and add to it. It's a wiki. However, see Wikipedia: Neutral Point of View. Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
