New election in a week

The next presidential election will take place on Friday, February 15. The date was agreed on by the leaders of the five political parties represented in Parliament and the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, Miloslav Vlček, who presides over joint sessions of the lower house and the Senate. Both the incumbent Václav Klaus, who remains a strong favourite, and challenger Jan Švejnar, who received 113 votes in the third vote on Saturday, have said they will stay in the running. They will now try to win over the communist electors, who abstained in Saturday’s vote.