TIME reports:
Jan. 1 should be a moment to savor for Czechs: almost two decades after the Velvet Revolution ended communist rule, the country is about to take over the six-month rotating E.U. presidency.
But while some Czechs may be flushed with pride, President Vaclav Klaus is not, and that has officials in Brussels riled. The Czech leader, a Euro skeptic in the best of times, has refused to fly the E.U. flag over public buildings like Prague Castle, saying it reminds him of the days when his country was made to fly the Soviet flag. Outgoing E.U. president Nicolas Sarkozy of France called that stance an “outrage” and a “wound . . .
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