Leader of the Social Democrats warns against trying to impeach Klaus

Leader of the Social Democrats Jiří Paroubek, meanwhile, has defended President Václav Klaus’s current stance on the Lisbon treaty. Speaking on Monday, Mr Paroubek said that lawmakers seeking to impeach the president for his failure to act either didn’t understand, or were in blatant breach of, the country’s Constitution. The Constitutional Court is currently reviewing the Lisbon treaty at the request of a group of right-wing senators allied to President Václav Klaus. Mr Klaus has said that he will not sign the treaty until the court has reached a verdict, and has recently added that he wants the Czech Republic to be awarded an opt-out from the treaty before he puts his signature to the document. On Monday, Mr Paroubek said that it was in the interest of Lisbon ratification that lawmakers did not bring an impeachment case against the Czech president, and that such a move would have damaging consequences for Czech society.