President's right to veto is weak, should be enhanced, says Klaus

Prague, March 6 (CTK) - Outgoing Czech President Vaclav Klaus Wednesday said he is for the institution of the presidential veto to be strengthened because now the president's chance of vetoing bills is weak and he cannot use it to really influence the state affairs.

Klaus was talking to journalists at the Government Office that he visited to say farewell to the cabinet before his second and last mandate as Czech president expires on Thursday.

At present, the president can return bills to the Chamber of Deputies, i.e. veto the bills, but the deputies can override his veto by 101 of the Chamber's 200 votes, which often happens.

In reaction to a journalist's question, Klaus said the president should not attend the cabinet meetings too frequently.

He should not meddle in the cabinet's job, he said.

"If something should be done, it should be the strengthening of the presidential veto which, in view of the weak position it has, is a symbolic rather than realistic chance of influencing the affairs and developments in our country," Klaus said.

The Chamber of Deputies, with a majority of government deputies, has overridden all of Klaus's 13 vetos of bills in this election term since mid-2010, according to statistic figures that the Chamber's press department provided to CTK in January.

Klaus said he does not think that he visited cabinet meetings too scarcely in his capacity as president.

"I think visiting the cabinet is actually not the president's job," he said.

Klaus's successor, former socialist prime minister Milos Zeman who will be sworn in on Friday, said he will visit the cabinet meetings more often than Klaus.

Prime Minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) previously said in reaction to Zeman that the Czech Republic "is a parliamentary republic and there is the constitution and our constitutional habits. I suppose that all protagonists will strongly stick to them in the future. There is no reason to change anything about it," Necas said, answering the question of whether he fears that Zeman's criticism may harm his right-wing cabinet.