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This left two main rivals vying for the presidency – the incumbent president Václav Klaus and challenger Jan Švejnar. Radio Prague’s Ian Willoughby has been up at the Castle following developments.
So Ian, it sounds like this morning’s main event has been Jana BoboÅ¡Ãková pulling out of the running?
“It was indeed. Jana BoboÅ¡Ãková, an MEP – she was the Communist Party candidate – gave a speech with the other candidates for president, Václav Klaus and Jan Å vejnar, just after 10 o’clock when the session opened here. Then, when they announced the recess for lunch at 12:45, she surprised many people by announcing her withdrawal from the race. Her reason was that she hadn’t got enough support she said, which is kind of strange, given that that was already known before today – she didn’t even have the support of all of the Communist lawmakers. So that was a strange turn of events.â€
And how does this affect things?
“Well, it means basically that the chances of Jan Švejnar going through to the second and third rounds are greatly increased. Because the communists have said that they will definitely vote for him because they don’t want to just see Václav Klaus in the second and third rounds. But again, like last week, the communists won’t vote for Mr Švejnar in the crucial third round.
“Also, there has been some interesting news that the Civic Democrats aren’t this week insisting upon a secret vote. So that should mean we will avoid a long debate today. There will definitely be a show of hands today, there won’t be a long vote about how to vote. So things should go a lot more quickly today.â€
What can we expect of this afternoon?
“The main question today I suppose is whether the incumbent Václav Klaus will be reelected today. One Social Democrat lawmaker Evžen SnÃtilý is going to vote for him, so he’s going against his party line. And one Green MP isn’t here today, because she is sick – so that is one less anti-Klaus vote. But then again, one pro-Klaus lawmaker said previously that he wouldn’t vote if there was a show of hands. There will be a show of hands. So it is a very hard one to call. Last Saturday, Václav Klaus lost the election by just one vote, and it could really come down to one vote again today.â€
(radio-Prague)
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