Ex-president Klaus launches new book

Former president Vaclav Klaus on Monday launched his new book The Czech Republic at a Crossroads. The book is his fiercest criticism of the EU to date, in which the president claims the EU contributes to everything bad in Czech politics, society and the economy and says the country cannot make a headway and effect structural changes unless it makes a radical cut and leaves the EU. The country’s leading Eurosceptic said at the book launch in Prague that the Czech Republic was now at a crossroads and had two options: either to try to reform the EU from within or leave its ranks. He said there was no reason to fear a clean break from Brussels, since such a move would be akin to the Czech-Slovak divorce: trams would still run, water would flow and the lights would still shine.