Margaret Thatcher
Her political philosophy provided a model for postcommunist countries
By VÁCLAV KLAUS
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| Photograph for TIME by Harry Borden |
| IRONWORK: A champion of
the free market, Thatcher
cut back the everexpanding
British state |
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She's called the Iron Lady, but to me there has never seemed anything iron about Margaret Thatcher, a remarkable woman and one of the greatest politicians of the modern age. I've had the pleasure to meet her many times over the past 17 years, since the fall of communism. She has always been kind and a good listener.
What I admire about her is that she has never compromised with anyone who doesn't share the basic moral and political principles of human freedom to which she herself has been faithful all her life. And that constancy has enabled her to achieve things which seemed almost impossible. During her
11 years as its first female Prime Minister, Britain changed and progressed substantially. Her leadership was also decisive for the future of Central and Eastern Europe, including my own country, now the Czech Republic.
I do not believe it an exaggeration to say that the meltdown of communism in Central and Eastern Europe was initiated in Britain in 1979 by her election victory. Her Conservative government demonstrated a model that postcommunist countries would be able to follow. She proved that it is possible to curb the tendency to constantly expand the state, and return to a liberal social system. When communism collapsed, for many in my country, capitalism was still considered a dirty word. In the early 1990s, I founded a party modeled on the British Conservative Party and I succeeded in persuading the Czech people that we had to restore capitalism.
I am proud to be a Thatcherite. It's a political philosophy that combines belief in individual freedoms and free markets with the promotion of national interests and resistance to the imposition of supranational government. In Europe, politicians who aim to reduce red tape and taxation and push for privatization, the politicians who defend democracy and freedom, these all might be described as Thatcherite. Unfortunately, mainstream right-wing parties in Europe are barely distinguishable from the Social Democrats these days. They should remember Margaret Thatcher, at 81 now a living legend. I have met many giants of world politics, but none of them has left such an impression on me as this exceptional woman.
Václav Klaus is the President of the Czech Republic
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April 28, 2004 |
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October 11, 2004 |
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October 10, 2005 |
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