Respekt: Klaus may gain even more influence, but Czechs tired of him

Prague, March 4 (CTK) - Vaclav Klaus may gain even more political influence after his departure from the presidential post as he repeatedly managed to return to the top in the past, but it will be harder for him now that Czechs seem to be tired of him, Erik Tabery says in weekly Respekt out Monday.

Klaus managed to survive several political deaths and to return to a prominent position in Czech politics again. This may of course happen even now, yet opinion polls, press articles and the public debate point to an apparent fatigue syndrome: people have had enough of Klaus after 23 years of his omnipresence, Tabery writes, recalling that Klaus was finance minister, then prime minister, head of parliament, regular lawmaker and finally president.

He says the negative reaction to Klaus is not based only on the latest outrage over his presidential amnesty that applied also to some cases of large-scale corruption and fraud.

After 23 years, Klaus will not be part of any powerful political institution for the first time. When his presidential mandate expires on Thursday, he will lose direct influence on the administration of the state, at least for some time, Tabery writes.

Paradoxically, Klaus may be harmed by the success of president-elect Milos Zeman whom he backed in the presidential campaign. Zeman has taken over Klaus's populism and he has been attracting a lot of attention, which Klaus will be missing after he ends as president, Tabery says.

Nobody expects Klaus to withdraw from the public debate. Klaus will certainly remain active. But how and from what position? There is a number of possibilities and many people believe that Klaus may gain even stronger influence than he has had until now, Tabery writes.

A part of those around the Eurosceptic Klaus have been convincing him to run for the European Parliament in order to strike a blow to the EU. His candidature in the European elections would be an interesting chance to see how high support Klaus has among Czech voters now, Tabery says.

The last election in which Klaus ran was held in 2002 and the result was bad for him, Tabery recalls.

The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) led by Klaus lost to the Social Democrats (CSSD) for the first time then.

In the next European election Klaus would probably win the anti-European votes, although most of them are cast for the Communists (KSCM). It is hard to say whether these votes would be enough for Klaus to succeed in the EP election, Tabery writes.

Even if Klaus entered the EP, no current Czech MEP plays a significant role in domestic or European politics, he says.

Klaus's foreign trips showed that his prestige on the international political scene is not very high, which would make the success of his possible mission beyond the borders of the Czech Republic more than questionable, Tabery writes.