President’s Office publishes transcript of stormy meeting with MEPs

In an unprecedented move, the President’s Office has published a transcript of Friday’s meeting between President Klaus and a delegation of the European Parliament which ended in sharp dispute. The head of the President’s Office Jiří Weigl strongly criticized some of the statements made in the course of the meeting, saying that the leader of the European Greens MEP Cohn-Bendit had devised the talks as a provocation. The Czech president was visibly angered when MEP Cohn-Bendit told him that in his position he had no right meeting with people like Declan Ganley, the Irish opponent of the Lisbon treaty, and asked him to explain his ties to the man. Mr. Klaus said later he had never been addressed in such a manner in all his years as head of state. Mr. Cohn-Bendit told Mlada Fronta Dnes that he had been intentionally provocative, saying that the Czech President should have been prepared to get asked certain questions.