Shaping of Czech Debate on the Euro: Position of Václav Klaus in 1999–2002 Period

The European Union (EU) has been changing since the start of the economic crisis in 2008. Many previously uncontested issues – among them the euro - have been challenged. As a result of these developments, attitudes usually labelled as Euroscepticism have become more accepted as a part of the political mainstream. This article tries to identify – on the basis of the analysis of the euro discourse of Václav Klaus, former Czech president and prominent Eurosceptic – whether the current critical atmosphere in the EU can be explained through assumptions of theoretically defined soft and hard Euroscepticism and can be thus seen as a manifestation of Euroscepticism. The article concludes that even if the euro discourse of Václav Klaus contains both elements of soft and hard Euroscepticism, an important level of expertise critique towards the euro that can be found in Klaus’ discourse can not be explained by Euroscepticism