Klaus leaves office after 10 years

President Václav Klaus’s second and final term in office ends at midnight on Thursday. Mr Klaus was first elected president in 2003, after serving as prime minister and head of the right-of-centre Civic Democrat party in the 1990s. Mr Klaus is credited with creating the democratic political system in the Czech Republic; however, his divisive views on issues such as global warming and European integrations have made him a controversial figure. After attending his successor’s inauguration on Friday, Mr Klaus is set to leave for a lecture tour in the US before assuming a new role as the head of the recently-founded Václav Klaus Institute in Prague.

Author: Jan Richter