Finally, a president

Prague

The Czech Parliament delivered a slap to outgoing president Václav Havel this week, choosing as his successor his longtime nemesis, the conservative Václav Klaus. The lawmakers selected Klaus only after a long deadlock and many votes. After intense lobbying, Klaus ultimately amassed a bare majority. As prime minister, the acerbic Klaus frequently clashed with Havel, the beloved former dissident who led the Velvet Revolution that rid Czechoslovakia of communist rule. Upon winning, Klaus immediately lobbed a veiled insult at his predecessor by pronouncing the presidential residence “decrepit” and unusable. “It’s like stumbling across a former manor house or chateau that has been occupied for years by the local collective farm,” Klaus said.

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