Activists turn their backs on Klaus in Brno

Brno, March 6 (CTK) - About 30 young activists, opponents of Czech President Vaclav Klaus, gathered outside the Tugendhat villa in Brno Wednesday to ostentatiously turn their backs on Klaus arriving to meet his Slovak counterpart Ivan Gasparovic.

Shortly before Klaus's arrival, two activists presented each other with self-made "state decorations" in an ironical allusion to the Klaus-Gasparovic meeting at which they awarded state orders to each other.

No incidents accompanied the protest and the police did not intervene.

"People's disinterest in him is the only thing Vaclav Klaus fears more than homosexualists, snowboarders and Vaclav Havel together. That is why we should say farewell to him appropriately," the protest organisers said, jokingly hinting at Klaus's previous repeated criticism of various -isms, or streams and movements that are fashionable but harmful in his opinion.

Also alluding to Klaus's vocabulary, the organisers described Wednesday's protest as "a false and empty non-parting with Vaclav Klaus."

About 200 people gathered at the Tugendhat villa to watch the arrival of Klaus and Gasparovic.

Klaus's second and last five-year mandate expires on Thursday.