President describes election results as a political earthquake

In an interview with Monday’s edition of Lidové noviny, President Václav Klaus described the election results as a political earthquake that had not left one stone standing upon another. He highlighted the sharp drop in support for the two main parties blaming this on the protracted stalemate after the previous tied elections in 2006, the association of previous Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolánek with top business leaders, political behaviour of former Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek and demonization of politicians by the media. The president said that there were still big questions about the two new breakthrough parties, TOP 09 and Public Affairs, and how they would behave.