Zieleniec advisor: Klaus EU views not shared by majority in party

It's just days before Vaclav Klaus is inaugurated as the country's 10th president, and a question many people are asking is - will the former Civic Democrat leader soften his often critical stance to European integration? People call him a Euro-sceptic, he calls himself a Euro-realist, but with just over three months to go before June's EU referendum, not everyone is convinced Mr Klaus is the right man to represent the country at this crucial time. Among them is Lukas Macek, advisor to Josef Zieleniec, the Senate's representative on the EU Convention.

Vaclav Klaus

"I think obviously it's good to have an experienced politician in the Presidential Office, but on the other hand, specifically on European Union issues, I think that Mr Klaus's positions are quite close to extreme positions on the European Union. And I think for a country it's not good to be represented by people with such extreme or very minority points of view. And in the Convention it's quite obvious - Jan Zahradil [Civic Democrat MP and deputy chairman], who has very close opinions to those of Mr Klaus, is quite isolated in the Convention. There's only a very small group of people sharing his views on the European Union. I think the future of a small or medium-sized country like the Czech Republic is to adopt a constructive, not a destructive position."

On the other hand the views of Mr Klaus, Mr Zahradil and the Civic Democratic Party on the European Union are well-known. The party is currently doing very well in the opinion polls. Mr Klaus was elected president. It's not as if his views are marginal in the Czech Republic is it?

"I would say there's a big difference between a small group at the national level of the Civic Democrats, where there's a kind of intellectual anti-European position like that shared by Mr Klaus and Mr Zahradil. But the majority view of Civic Democrat members and especially voters is not so radical. And if you speak to the leaders of regional councils from the Civic Democrats, they are much more pro-European than Mr Zahradil or Mr Klaus."

And that was Lukas Macek, advisor to Senator Josef Zieleniec, and he was speaking to David Vaughan.