Social Democrats considering Svejnar

The opposition Social Democrats will consider supporting economist Jan Svejnar in next year's presidential election, party leader Jiri Paroubek told journalists after Svejnar visited the party's deputy group in the lower house on Tuesday. Mr. Svejnar has not ruled out the possibility of running in the election if he received broad support. Other potential candidates for the post are former foreign minister Jiri Dienstbier and Vaclav Paces, chairman of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In order for any candidate to present a serious challenge to the incumbent president he would need to win support from four parliamentary parties -the Greens, Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and the Communists.