Head of PEN Club critical of president in Austrian daily

The Czech writer, poet and former diplomat Jiří Gruša has criticised Czech President Václav Klaus in an interview for the Austrian daily Kurier, calling steps by the president to play a bigger role on the international scene “alarming”. Mr Gruša was education minister in Mr Klaus’s government in the 1990s. In the interview the writer, who now chairs the International PEN Club, also criticised the recent vote of no-confidence on Mirek Topolánek’s government during the Czech EU presidency, something which he said he had not thought possible. He did express confidence that the new interim government would be able to successfully complete the role. The Czech Republic hands over the rotating EU presidency to Sweden at the beginning of July.