Klaus not to fully withdraw from Czech politics - press

Klaus's second and last five-year term ends on March 7. He will be succeded by Milos Zeman.

Klaus has thus confirmed that he wants to be still involved in politics.

"It is my primary ambition to be seated in the recently established Vaclav Klaus Institute, built along the model of U.S. presidential libraries, which means being next to politics," Klaus said.

"Not to be directly in politics. But I do not want to close the on active politics. Wait and see," he added.

Klaus said earlier after his mandate expired he would still enter the public politics with his analyses, studies and similar things.

However, his popularity plummeted to a record law after his New Year's amnesty largely condemned by the general public.

His involvement in the recent presidential campaign in which he openly backed leftist candidate Zeman, preferring him to conservative contender Karel Schwarzenberg, also caused some embarrassment.

Klaus has said the criticism of the amnesty is an attack that is to weaken him.

Critics say too many criminals were released from prisons and some open fraud cases have not been unpunished due to the amnesty.

"Its sense is to attack me right at this moment, before my presidential term of office ends," Klaus said on Czech Television in early January.

He said he believed that politicians were afraid of his further presence in public life and that media was trying to manipulate the public, which has "been successful" among a "large part of people."

"The amnesty was incredibly distorted by media as a caricature and ordinary people then did not 'understand' this caricature," Klaus said.

"The duel with the media supremacy is incredibly difficult. It cannot be won in the short run, but I am optimistic in the long run," he added.

When officially saying good-bye to diplomats on Thursday, Klaus said he was planning to keep travelling abroad, hoping that he would have more time for various international meetings and conferences.

The Presidential Office said in January after leaving his post, Klaus will become a collaborator of the U.S. conservative Cato think tank during March.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz