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Czech PM does not regret ‘road to hell’ row By Tony Barber in Prague Published: May 7 2009 08:55 | Last updated: May 7 2009 08:55 Mirek Topolanek, the outgoing Czech prime minister, says he has no regrets about condemning US economic policies as a potential “road to hell” in spite of the deep embarrassment his remarks caused the European Union. In an interview with the Financial Times, he also said that, if he could have done one thing differently during the four months he steered the EU’s affairs, it would have been to rein in the free-ranging Middle East...

Leadership: The new EU president may have ruffled Old World feathers calling President Obama's massive spending "the road to hell," but Mirek Topolanek and his fellow Czechs know that road all too well.One European leader has the guts to say what the nonsocialists among his fellow leaders — like German Chancellor Angela Merkel — know as well as he does. The Czech Republic's Prime Minister Topolanek warned during a European parliamentary session that the United States is "repeating mistakes from the 1930s, such as wide-ranging stimuluses, protectionist tendencies and appeals, the Buy American campaign, and so on." Topolanek added that...

Here is a video report on the remarks of Czech Prime Minister Topolanek in which he said President Barack Obama's economic policies are a "road to hell." Topolanek far more fiscally conservative and was a strong ally of former President George W. Bush. He made the comments before the European Union Parliament. . . . . . (Watch Video)

The European Union's crisis of leadership during this severe economic downturn was thrown into sharp relief on Wednesday, as the prime minister of the country that holds the rotating presidency lambasted President Barack Obama's emergency stimulus package as "a way to hell" that will "undermine the stability of the global financial market." The blunt comments of the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, coming just a week before a crucial meeting of the Group of 20 that is supposed to show leaders coming together to cope with the crisis, were greeted with embarrassment by many Europeans, who believe that the Czechs...

Missile defense critics welcome Czech govt's fall March 25, 2009 - 12:16pm By KAREL JANICEK Associated Press Writer PRAGUE (AP) - Czechs opposed to hosting part of a U.S. missile shield hailed the collapse of their government as the latest setback for a defense system whose fate was already in doubt. A 101-96 no-confidence vote that saw four ruling coalition lawmakers side with the opposition Tuesday embarrassed Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, a staunch shield supporter, days before a visit by President Barack Obama and midway through the country's European Union presidency. The Obama administration has already signaled it may reconsider...

Strasbourg, France - The United States' decision to pump ever-larger sums into its economy is the "road to hell," the holder of the European Union's rotating presidency said Wednesday, just a week before he was set to meet the US president in London. The US is repeating the mistakes of the 1930s and has chosen the "road to hell" in the process, said the Czech Republic's fallen prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, the morning after his government failed a vote of no confidence by the narrowest of margins. The vote throws into question not just the Czech presidency of the EU,...

OTTAWA (AFP) - Visiting Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek on Friday urged NATO countries to play a larger role in routing insurgents from Afghanistan, noting his nation is doubling its troop deployment this year. "Like Canada, we're calling upon other countries to take their share of responsibility and to participate even more visibly in peacekeeping and peace-building in Afghanistan," Topolanek said following meetings with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several Canadian ministers. He also indicated that the Czech Republic will double its number of soldiers taking part in the US-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan this year to about...

PRAGUE—The Czech prime minister has sparked a debate over his country's Communist past by decorating men who killed people when they fought the totalitarian regime and shot their way through to the West in 1950s. Mirek Topolanek on Tuesday presented the honorary medal to Milan Paumer, 76, member of a group that killed six people in sabotage strikes against the Communist government and during their escape to West Berlin. "Paumer belonged to a group that, when Communism declared war on its citizens, stood up to the regime and wanted to fight for the liberation of Czechoslovakia," he said. Topolanek honoured...