Greens will not support Klaus’s presidency bid, Bursik tells Civic Democrats

Head of the Green Party, Martin Bursik, has said that he is willing to negotiate with his senior coalition partner the Civic Democrats on the subject of next year’s presidential elections. But, he has emphasised, that the Civic Democrats’ candidate for the post, the current president Vaclav Klaus, will not be receiving the endorsement of the Greens. The Green Party find Mr Klaus’s views on global warming particularly unacceptable, and their leader, Mr Bursik has previously accused President Klaus of ‘living on another planet’. Mr Klaus is reported as wanting to negotiate with the Greens about his presidential bid, but the party has already come out in support of his potential rival, the economist Jan Svejnar. The Civic Democrats unanimously voted for Mr Klaus to represent them as their presidential candidate at their party conference on Saturday. Some factions of the party want prime minister Mirek Topolanek to put pressure on his coalition partners - the Christian Democrats and the Greens - so that they back Mr Klaus for the presidency as well.