EU Delegation Harangues Vaclav Claus and Demands that Klaus Fly the Flag on Prague Castle

It was amid … tense atmosphere that a delegation from the European Parliament turned up at Prague Castle on December 5 to meet with President Klaus

writes John Rosenthal.

The castle is the official seat of the Czech presidency. One of the members of the delegation was the Green party member of parliament Daniel Cohn-Bendit: the legendary “Dany the Red” of Paris May 68 fame who has, in the meanwhile, become a fervent promoter of all things European.

As the meeting opened, Cohn-Bendit brusquely placed a small EU flag on the President’s desk. The evidently pre-meditated gesture was a sarcastic allusion to Klaus’s “euroskepticism” and the absence of the European flag at Prague Castle. According to Czech public radio Radio Prague, Cohn-Bendit demanded that Klaus fly the flag on the castle. He proceeded then to harangue Klaus about his views on “climate change” and his lack of support for the “Reform Treaty.” (For two slightly differing accounts of the encounter, see here on the EU Referendum blog and here in The Telegraph.)

The President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, was also present at the meeting. Pöttering is reported to have backed Cohn-Bendit’s unusual démarche and to have himself demanded that Klaus fly the EU flag over Prague castle. The only flag that flies over Prague Castle is the Czech presidential standard pictured …