Svejnar not to leave post in CSOB bank

Presidential candidate Jan Svejnar is not planning to leave his post of a chairman at the supervisory board of CSOB bank. Mr Svejnar said he will resign to the post only if he succeeds in winning the election, in which he is running against the incumbent president Vaclav Klaus. However, he has already discontinued his work in the CSOB board in October and he doesn’t receive any payments. The CSOB bank is currently in a legal dispute with the Czech state over 30 billion crowns (1.1 billion US dollars).

The Czech-American economist Jan Svejnar officially announced his decision to run for president last Friday. The election is scheduled to be held on February 8. Mr Svejnar’s nomination was backed by ten lawmakers from the upper house from across the political spectrum – excluding the right-of-centre Civic Democrats and the Communists. According to the latest poll conducted by the STEM agency, the two presidential candidates currently have the same preferences.