Bursík slams president over speech on climate change

The country’s environment minister, Martin Bursík, has issued scathing criticism of Czech President Václav Klaus over a speech the head-of-state gave in the US this week on global warming. On Thursday Mr Bursík likened the president to a “comic figure” and said he was damaging the Czech Republic on the international scene. Mr Klaus – a denier of the existence of man-made global warming – spoke at a conference in California during which he compared environmentalists to the communists who ruled Czechoslovakia for 40 years. Mr Klaus has spoken on the issue of global warming on numerous occasions, drawing fire from a number of politicians as well as Czech environmentalists.