Prague, Dec 21 (CTK) – Former president Vaclav Klaus recently met leaders of Czech political parties to discuss support for his possible return to high politics, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes yesterday, adding that he addressed the Social Democrats (CSSD), the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and TOP 09.
Klaus left the presidential office in early 2013 and he has been working in his think tank, the Vaclav Klaus Institute, since then. He commented on politics and held lectures, but did not seek active participation in politics, the paper writes.
This has recently changed, with the migrant crisis and the unrelenting stream of refugees heading for Europe. Not to be a failure, Klaus´s return would need to be at least silently approved by the broad political scene, LN writes.
According to the paper, Klaus invited the leaders of the right-wing opposition TOP 09, including the new chairman Miroslav Kalousek and his predecessor Karel Schwarzenberg, for lunch in early December.
TOP 09 deputy chairman Marek Zenisek said migration was discussed at the meeting.
“We politely accepted the offer and we politely said our stances are very different. We agreed on the description of the problem, but we could hardly agree on its solution,” Zenisek told the paper.
Last week, Klaus, 74, told CTK that he is striving for the formation of a broad platform on the migrant crisis, associating political and other entities, under his aegis.
Klaus said the platform should help the government gain a mandate from citizens to refuse to accept refugees. He added that he had addressed 20-25 entities, including major parties.
Klaus and his long-term assistant Jiri Weigl met Deputy Prime Minister and KDU-CSL leader Pavel Belobradek, but Belobradek did not want to comment on the meeting, LN writes.
Weigl said Belobradek appreciated Klaus´ initiative and he welcomed it that it was not aimed against the government.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) did not have talks with Klaus, LN writes.
“Vaclav Klaus is not a political partner with whom it would be reasonable for the CSSD to negotiate. The CSSD holds absolutely different positions on key political and ideological issues in the long term,” Sobotka told the paper.
Klaus may decide to run in the 2018 presidential election, but this seems unlikely if President Milos Zeman seeks re-election because Zeman criticises the EU solution to the migrant wave in a way similar to Klaus, LN writes.
It recalls that the latest STEM opinion poll showed that a vast majority of Czechs fear Islam in connection with the refugee influx and most of them consider the government´s migrant policy unclear.
Klaus and Weigl recently issued a book dealing with the migrant crisis.
Weigl said Klaus wanted Czech society to be able to hold a position on the migrant crisis that would be in line with national interests and the public opinion.
He said media presents the issue very different from what a crushing majority of the people in the Czech Republic think.
Weigl said Klaus´ think tank has no ambition to turn into a political party or movement. Klaus´ initiative focuses merely on the migrant crisis and there is no secret plan to seize political power, Weigl added.
“We have neither the power nor the means nor the ambition to radically enter politics,” Weigl told the paper.
