Miloš Zeman kicks off his new party’s election campaign in Prague

Miloš Zeman who was elected chairman of the newly established Citizens’ Rights Party over the weekend, lost no time in kicking off the party’s election campaign in Prague. The former prime minister, who came out of retirement to give dissatisfied left-wing voters an alternative in May’s general elections, told supporters he knew a way out of the crisis. The party’s policy programme includes cutting costs in state administration, progressive taxation and a tax on luxury goods. Mr. Zeman was out in fighting spirit on Sunday saying his party was being described as a party of dinosaurs and has-beens, but he would show them yet.

Miloš Zeman, who led the Social Democrats to power, served as prime minister between 1998 and 2002, retiring a year later after he lost a bid for the presidency to the current head of state Vaclav Klaus. He was increasingly critical of the Social Democrats in later years and officially left the party in 2007. Some of his former allies have left the Social Democrats to join his Citizens’ Rights Party.