Vaclav Klaus

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Klaus, Václav (b. 19 June 1941). Prime Minister of the Czech Lands 1992; Prime Minister of the Czech Republic 1993–8; President of the Czech Republic, 2003–  Born in Prague, he received a doctorate in economics in 1967 and joined the Academy of Science. Owing to his democratic views he was forced to resign in 1970, and to take employment in the state bank. During the Velvet Revolution of 1989, he was the economic spokesman for the civil rights movement. He became Minister of Finance after the collapse of the Communist regime. In 1991 he became President of the Democratic Citizens' Party (ODS), which won the Czech general election of 1992. He thus became Prime Minister of the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, which became independent on 1 January 1993. He carried out the most radical monetarist economic reforms of any leader of a former Comecon state. Between October 1991 and October 1994, more than six million Czechs were given shares in over 1,800 companies. In 1998 he was forced to resign owing to accusations of corruption involving political payments from privatized companies. He continued to be an influential figure in Czech politics as President of the House of Representatives. In 2003, Klaus benefited from the disunity of the governing coalition, and was elected President.

Václav Klaus , 1941–, Czech politician. A staunch free-market economist and leader (1991–2002) of the Civic Democratic party, he has been one of Eastern Europe's more influential post-Communist leaders. While a member of the Czech state bank (1971–86), he came to admire the ideas of such conservative economists as Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek . The first finance minister of the Czech Republic after the fall of Communism in 1989, the dapper, imperious Klaus became prime minister in 1992 and continued in the post when after Czechoslovakia was dissolved (1993) and the Czech Republic became independent. The Czech economy was extensively privatized, but economic setbacks in 1997 forced his resignation. In 2003 he was elected Czech president, succeeding the retiring Václav Havel , with whom Klaus was often at odds when he was prime minister. Klaus was reelected in 2008. A staunch Eurosceptic, Klaus refused to sign the European Union's Lisbon Treaty as required to formalize Czech ratification (the last ratification needed). He finally did so (Nov., 2009) after the Czech Republic was given an exemption from the EU rights charter that he demanded so that Germans expelled after World War II could not reclaim their property.

Klaus, Václav (1941– ) Czech statesman, prime minister (1993–97). Following the ‘Velvet Revolution’ (1989) he became finance minister in Václav Havel's administration. In 1991 Klaus founded the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). He became prime minister of the Czech Republic following the break-up of Czechoslovakia, but was forced to resign by a financial scandal. He was replaced by Milos Zeman.