The Czech president supports government reforms

On 7 September President Vaclav Klaus appeared before the Czech Chamber of Members of Parliament for the first time in seven years. In his speech he endorsed the plans for the reform of public finance proposed by the centre-right government, and called on MPs to weaken the position of the Constitutional Court. The speech of the president constituted an offer of cooperation made to the MPs of the ruling coalition. As Vaclav Klaus sees the current government as his political ally, he is backing the governmental reform programme and at the same time trying to persuade the government to adopt his vision of the division of power in the country.

According to Vaclav Klaus, the centre-right wing that has a majority in parliament stands a unique chance of introducing systemic reforms which will be supported by the president. At the same time President Klaus firmly criticised the Constitutional Court for transgressing its competences and for politicisation. In the president’s opinion, the Constitutional Court has taken the place of an “uncontrolled third chamber of parliament”. The conflict between the president and the Constitutional Court escalated in autumn 2009 on the occasion of changing the date of the early election and the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. The presidential appeal was however met with moderate support from MPs. The government is now focused on fixing public finance and so is postponing a possible change in the constitution until the end of its term in office. <grosz>