Politicians condemn attack on Klaus

Prague, Sept 28 (CTK) - Czech politicians have unanimously condemned a young man's attack on President Vaclav Klaus with a plastic gun during a bridge opening ceremony in Chrastava, north Bohemia, Friday.

Some of them called it a blatant failure of the presidential bodyguards that a 26-year-old man, a resident of the north Bohemian regional centre Liberec, got close to Klaus, put a plastic pistol to his side and squeezed the trigger repeatedly, with the bodyguards watching the scene without intervening.

Klaus suffered a light elbow injury, a medical check-up in the Central Military Hospital in Prague has shown.

"This is a regrettable incident that should not occur. Everyone in the democratic society has the right to express his/her disagreement with politics, but this protest must not exceed a sensible limit. I don't use bodyguards myself, and not even this incident will change my decision," Prime Minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) said in a statement his spokesman has given to CTK.

Chamber of Deputies chairwoman Miroslava Nemcova (ODS) said she condemns the conduct of the man who attacked the president.

"It is a display of intolerance and hatred that have no place in a democratic society. They must not be spread or used in any form by either democratic politicians or citizens," Nemcova said.

Miroslav Kalousek, finance minister and deputy head of the junior ruling TOP 09, described the attack as "loutish stupidity" on the part of the assailant and "an incredible failure of the bodyguards."

Lubomir Zaoralek, deputy chairman of the Chamber of Deputies and of the senior opposition Social Democrats (CSSD), said he cannot imagine someone with a pistol getting so close to the president and doing what the man in Chrastava did, with the bodyguards only watching it.

"Thanks God, it was not a real weapon. If the bodyguards are incapable of reaction, they are redundant," Zaoralek added.

"If it was to be a threat to the president or other politicians, it deserves punishment. If it was to be a joke, it is totally stupid. If the assailant wanted to draw attention to himself, it was cheap. However, it is embarrassing how easy it was," said Deputy PM Karolina Peake, head of the LIDEM party.

Opposition Communist party's (KSCM) chairman Vojtech Filip said the KSCM has distanced itself from the attack on Klaus.

"Violence is incompatible with our policy and we condemn any acts linked to it," Filip said.