Poll: 65 percent back Klaus in stance on Lisbon treaty

A new poll conducted by the Median agency for the Czech daily Lidové noviny has suggested that 65 percent of Czechs support the country’s president, Václav Klaus, in his refusal to sign the Lisbon treaty. The survey questioned 500 respondents, 63 percent of whom expressed worry over ratification, unless the country received an opt-out on the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. The president has said that without an exemption, the treaty could allow for ethnic Germans expelled from Bohemia and Moravia after World War II to reopen property claims cases. The Czech Republic is the only country in the EU’s 27-member bloc to not yet have completed ratification.