PragueBuzz!

 On February 8th, the Czech Republic’ Parliament, composed of two chambers, The Chamber of Deputies and Senate, will start the process of picking the new president.  Members of both chambers will choose from two candidates, Vaclav Klaus and Jan Svejnar.

Václav Klaus, the current president, to stay in office for the next 5 years will fight his challenger Jan Svejnar, an internationally recognized economist.  Klaus, former chairman of the current strongest political party Civic Democrats (ODS), relies on the support of his former colleagues and the unlikely alliance with Christian Democrats ( KDU - CSL).

ODS’ recent bill offers a big settlement to the Catholic Church for property expropriated by the government during Communist regime.  This “generous” move has more or less attracted Christian Democrats’ votes for Klaus since the majority of KDU-CSL are devout Catholics.  ODS is obviously thoughtful, don’t you think?

Jan Svejnar, endorsed by the Green and Social Democrats Parties, is trying to show new directions for his presidential office in contrast to Václav Klaus, who is infamous for creating inconsistent pictures of the Czech Republic abroad.  Klaus often presents his personal opinions as if they are official opinions of the Czech Government, thus confusing our abroad partners.  He, many times, expresses his skeptical attitude toward Global Warming and EU integration, conflicts with Czech official government’s foreign policy which actually does heed the danger of Global Warming and the importance to integrate with EU.

 Jan Svejnar, despite being a respectable economist and not connecting to any past corruption scandals like Václav Klaus, unfortunately has lower chance to be elected.  He lacks political experience, and even the Green and Social Parties can not give him enough votes.   He desperately needs support from the Communist Party, which   has not yet decided for whom they will cast their votes. They are tactically waiting for the higher bidder for their few but significant votes.  Václav Klaus, this election’s crowned prince, does not need Communist Party if KDU-CSL will vote for them.  On the other hand, it will be difficult for Jan Svejnar to win over the Communistic Party as he is a liberal economist, living in the USA. It’s an irony imagining how Communist voters, who strongly oppose anything related to capitalism and the USA, would approve such choice.

Next time, I will tell you more about the election process, how many votes in each round are necessary for a candidate to progress to next level and eventually be elected a president. Fun topic isn’t it?

Written by Jan S.