Poll suggests majority of Czechs want president to be critical of government

A new poll released by the STEM agency suggests that seven out of ten Czechs want the head of state Miloš Zeman to remain critical of the government as well as political parties. But two-fifths, according to the poll, feel that Mr Zeman influences daily politics too much. Even as a candidate Mr Zeman, a former prime minister, promised he would be more hands-on and more vocal than his predecessors when it came to the political scene. As president, Mr Zeman has criticized the current government, for example, for its failure to more effectively draw European funds. The president and the prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, have also clashed in the media. Most recently, the president shocked many with a joke in which he described the Kalashnikov as a non-democratic means of getting rid of the premier.

Author: Jan Velinger