Final Word from Friday, February 28, 2003
Lawmakers will try again today to elect a president and will choose between a nice guy with little political experience, Jan Sokol, and Václav Klaus. If little-known Sokol has a chance, it's only because he's the best hope for the anti-Klaus, anti-Zeman crowd to give their two rivals a final setback. MP Miroslav Kalousek of KDU-ČSL, who suddenly seems to be in the Klaus camp, told MFD that there can be no political deals because there's no guarantee the winner will honor them once in office. But this seems only to apply to Sokol, because no one can be sure what he would do as president. Klaus, in contrast, has shown he knows how to honor a deal (with Miloš Zeman and Vladimír Železný, for example). The key question this time is whether Kalousek and a majority of the other lawmakers would gain more by having Klaus at the Castle, or gone for good.