Skip to main content
Support
Article

Czech President Vaclav Klaus to Speak at Wilson Center

Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, will speak at the fourth annual Czech and Slovak Lecture Series. Due to technical difficulties, the webcast that was originally scheduled for this event has been cancelled. A video of the President's presentation will be available on this site soon.

12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m. (ET)

Due to technical difficulties, the webcast scheduled for today has been cancelled. A video of the president's speech will be available on this site soon.

Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, will speak at the fourth annual Czech and Slovak Lecture Series.

The lecture series was initiated by the former ambassadors to the U.S. of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in order to commemorate these countries’ legacy in the struggle for freedom.

This event is being co-sponsored by the Czech and Slovak Embassies.

Vaclav Klaus was elected President of the Czech Republic on February 28, 2003, becoming the second president after former President Vaclav Havel’s term expired. Previously, he held the post of Prime Minister after the Civic Democrats’ victory in the 1992 elections and was subsequently re-appointed in July 1996. He resigned from the post in November 1997 after the break-up of the government coalition. After the early parliamentary elections in July 1998, Vaclav Klaus was elected as chairman of the lower house of Parliament.

As president, Klaus is leading his country into the EU along with the 9 others slated for membership for May 2004, although he remains skeptical about how EU membership will affect the Czech Republic and other new members from Central and Eastern Europe. Vaclav Klaus has received sixteen honorary doctorates in nine countries; nineteen international awards and has published over twenty books.

Related Program

Global Europe Program

The Global Europe Program addresses vital issues affecting the European continent, US-European relations, and Europe’s ties with the rest of the world. We investigate European approaches to critical global issues: digital transformation, climate, migration, global governance. We also examine Europe’s relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our program activities cover a wide range of topics, from the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE to European energy security, trade disputes, challenges to democracy, and counter-terrorism. The Global Europe Program’s staff, scholars-in-residence, and Global Fellows participate in seminars, policy study groups, and international conferences to provide analytical recommendations to policy makers and the media.  Read more