Paroubek joins criticism of President Klaus's proposed UN speech

The leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Jiri Paroubek, has entered into the debate on whether Czech President Vaclav Klaus should speak out against environmentalists at the United Nations or not. On Wednesday, the head of the Czech Green Party, Martin Bursik, criticized the president, saying that Mr. Klaus' proposed speech could seriously jeopardize the Czech Republic's chances of winning a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council in 2008 and 2009. Today Mr. Paroubek voiced his opinion, saying that the president had no mandate to present his own subjective views, and that he should represent the views of his country's government instead. Mr. Klaus plans to address the United Nations at the end of September. His speech is expected to be about global-warming, and what he calls the 'over-politicisation' of this topic.