Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek addressesdeputies at the European Parliament.
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek shocked the normally civil European Parliament Wednesday by warning that Washington's plans to fight the global economic crisis are "the way to hell."
The apparently off-the-cuff remarks of the leader of a small Central European country might not normally make waves -- particularly since his parliament had pulled the rug out from under him just the night before.
But the Czech Republic currently holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union, making Topolanek, in some sense, one of the leaders of the 27-country bloc that is larger than the United States.
President Barack Obama plans to visit the Czech capital of Prague next week after stopping in London for the G-20 summit of leading industrialized and emerging economies.
So for Topolanek to attack the United States -- and its Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner by name -- is a big deal.
"The path the United States has chosen is historically discredited," he said, advising Americans to "read dusty history books" so as to avoid repeating "the errors of the 1930s" and the Great Depression.
