Outgoing Czech president Václav Klaus plans to gather EU critics and create a Eurosceptic faction in the European Parliament. After his second term expires next month, he plans to continue his involvement in politics in what he calls “an active presidential retirement” and has his sights set on becoming a member of the European Parliament. European elections are scheduled for spring 2014, giving Klaus enough time to establish a new anti-EU party, writes the daily Lidové noviny.
His plan could attract people from a few marginal anti-EU and nationalist parties existing within the Czech Republic that could rally around Klaus. The newspaper speculates that the idea could even win sympathy among some strongly eurosceptic members of the Czech senior coalition Civic Democrats’ party (ODS), which Klaus established in 1992.
