President Klaus says he has already proved himself as head of state

President Klaus is refusing to be drawn into a live televised debate with his sole rival for the presidency Jan Svejnar. Mr. Klaus recently rejected Mr. Svejnar’s offer of an American-style one-on-one debate about crucial domestic and foreign policy matters on the grounds that his views were well known and he had already proved himself in office. Pressed by the opposition Social Democrats to accept the challenge, Mr. Klaus said it would be more to the point if the Social Democrats were to present Mr. Svejnar as their presidential candidate and tell the nation why they had chosen to back him.