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CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES |
By Benjamin Kuras
(Published
in the Prague Post)
The Czech presidential succession ruminations are upon us again and keep popping up each
time Presidential lungs are looked at by a doctor. The cigarettes are taking their toll
and Portuguese retirement is increasingly on the cards. The President does, after all, owe
the world a thick volume of memoirs, and about time, too. The choice of suitors ranges
from Vaclav "No-Ethics-Please" Klaus" to Tomas
"Nothing-But-Ethics" Halik, with Madeleine
"Don't-You-Czechs-Give-Me-Any-Trouble" Albright in between. The invincible
Professor Klaus is his own obvious best and only possible choice, the salvatorial Father
Halik the Presidential preference, the retiring US Foreign Secretary Albright a
Presidential joke designed to cheer the Czechs out of their notorious "rotten
mood". There is no "People's Choice", since no one will ever ask the people
for their opinion. The next President, like every other Czech president before him, will
be elected by the elected. And they, as every Czech knows, will elect the one whom they
would consider the best guarantor of their remaining the elected for as long as possible.
As to who that is, your guess is as good as mine.
Unless, of
course, Czech politics take another surprising twist and Czech legislators hearken to the
royalists, the fastest-growing political movement whose membership has multiplied 87-fold
in the past ten years to 87 members.
They mean well, and have recent European history on their side: European monarchies are
the most stable democracies, and totalitarian Spain transformed itself into a democracy by
becoming a monarchy. This has one snag, though. Many Czech royalists would simply want to
elevate the current president to king. The effect on the Constitution would be of epochal
proportions: Frail Presidential lungs would become frail Royal lungs, and the new King,
being without heirs, might acquire the power to appoint, rather than recommend for
election, a royal, rather than presidential, successor.
And there are, indeed, signs that this is precisely what he may already be doing, without waiting first to become king himself. There is someone in the wings eminently qualified for the job, who has already acquainted himself with the corridors of the Prague Castle and likes them very much. His name is Charles Windsor, and his qualifications include the jobs of Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. He is also a highly skilled organic farmer and campaigner for the preservation of all sorts of good traditional things and worthy causes.
The People's government in Britain has already abolished hereditary peers. Its ministers made a clear anti-royalist statement when they attended Queen Mother's 100th birthday celebrations in office suits. Several of them confessed that they swore their loyalty to the Crown only because they wouldn't get their job without it. There is every reason to predict that within a few years, Charles Windsor could be out of a job. There have been reports that he has already taken a few Czech language lessons. None of the above reports and rumours were categorically denied by sources close to Balmoral, let alone Windsor. (In fact, they said nothing at all).
You may be wondering exactly what relation Chares Windsor may have to the Czechs, their heritage and their future. So note this: As Chairman of the Royal Society for the Preservation of Traditional Ales, Prince Charles almost single-handedly saved the Budvar Budweiser beer from disappearing into the Anheuser-Busch Budweiser beer. And by doing so, as every Czech would tell you, he has done more for the Czech nation than all its post-communist politicians together.
Benjamin
Kuras is an Anglo-Czech writer, author of Czechs and Balances, As
Golems Go, and Is there Life on Marx?
e-mail: benkuras@aol.com
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