PM suggests president dividing society to prepare ground for next presidential elections

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has expressed the conviction that the Czech head of state, Miloš Zeman, is dividing Czech society as a means to create an ideal environment for re-election in the next presidential elections. The prime minister suggested as much in an interview for the Czech weekly Respekt. He likened a recent statement the president made about the Kalashnikov as being a non-democratic means of 'ridding' the country of the prime minister to rhetoric used by fascists and white supremacists. In the same article, Mr Sobotka suggested that Mr Zeman may have shifted from the left to conservative opinions as a result of older age.