The leader of the Czech Republic has long been one of the most strident critics of the European Union, missing no opportunity to let another withering attack fly. Now he has inherited the ideal pulpit to air his views: the EU presidency itself.

In his latest diatribe, this time before the European Parliament on Thursday, President Klaus, whose country assumed the rotating EU helm in January from France, branded the organisation an undemocratic and elitist project comparable to Soviet-era dictatorships that forbade free thought.

“Not so long ago,” Mr Klaus thundered, “in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives and therefore also no parliamentary opposition. We learned the bitter lesson that with no opposition, there is no freedom.”

He may have felt gratified by the reaction: boos from many lawmakers and a walkout by the left-wing parties — but applause from a minority of nationalists and other anti-EU legislators.

While deeply unpopular in EU circles, Mr Klaus strikes a deep chord in some member states where citizens fear European plans to share more powers come at the cost of national sovereignty. He has refused to fly the EU flag over his official seat in Prague during the Czech presidency, saying the country is not an EU province.

The sovereignty fears are reflected in the EU’s continuing inability to adopt a new charter aimed at breathing new life into the European project. Even in some of the impoverished newcomer nations, which might be expected to overwhelmingly support membership, there are growing grumblings about the meddlesome hand of Brussels.

Of the long list of things Mr Klaus does not like are such EU pet projects as the Lisbon treaty, adopting the euro in the Czech Republic and action on climate change. On Thursday he said that there was now an “uncriticisable assumption that there is only one possible and correct future of the European integration”.

While Mr Klaus may be cheered on by the doubters, his presidency is failing to bring the EU leadership amid a deepening economic recession. Brussels hopes to get all 27 governments to agree on co-ordinating measures to get Europe out of its downturn with a slew of talks in the coming months. But the Czechs have little of the clout of traditional EU heavyweights such as France or Germany.

Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Prime Minister, has recently traded barbs with President Sarkozy over a car bailout plan that he branded protectionist. Traditionally the country holding the EU presidency is meant to take the role of neutral arbiter.

And in a diplomatic incident to compete with anything Mr Klaus and his colleagues have achieved, there was "Installationgate" — the spoof EU artwork that depicted Bulgaria as a Turkish toilet, France as permanently on strike and The Netherlands as an inundated land of mosques. The Czechs were forced to apologize and covered up the loo.

Czech diplomats scrambled to play down Mr Klaus’s words this week. Even the President’s decision to hold his press conference at the Czech Embassy rather than follow tradition and have it at the European Parliament caused offence.

Lawmakers were aghast at Mr Klaus’s attempt to compare the EU to the Soviet bloc. “Mr Klaus outlined a completely twisted and manipulated view of European reality,” said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the Greens. “To seriously compare the decision-making process in the EU with that of the Soviet Union indicates that the man has lost all touch with reality.”

But Brussels has four more months to go of Mr Klaus in charge — four more months of hearing his version of reality whether it likes it or not.

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