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Švejnar conducts Western campaign

Local officials call such public electoral outreach 'nonsensical'

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
January 23rd, 2008 issue

With the Feb. 8 election fast approaching, presidential candidate Jan Švejnar is garnering public support with what some consider an unorthodox campaign.
The sole opponent to incumbent Václav Klaus, the candidate of the governing Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Švejnar has been shaking hands and taking questions at public appearances nationwide, including a Jan. 17 visit to Hradec Králové, east Bohemia. Such outreach seems to be having an effect. A recent survey conducted by the STEM polling institute shows 52 percent of Czechs would vote for Švejnar, while 48 percent would vote for Klaus, whose campaign strategy follows the more classic pattern of private meetings with deputies and senators.
Because the country’s president is not chosen through a direct public vote, rather by elected officials, some critics call Švejnar’s efforts to connect with the public purposeless.
“In reality, this style of presidential campaigning is not only nonsensical, but incorrect,” political analyst Bohumil Doležal writes in the daily Lidové noviny (LN) Jan. 9. “The president is elected by deputies and senators, and the campaign should focus on them.”
Despite such criticism, Švejnar, the nominee of the opposition Social Democrats (ČSSD), continues to make public appearances and stress the importance of an independent campaign. With the ODS holding 122 out of the 271 parliamentary seats, however, he faces tough competition from the center-right ODS, which is largely loyal to Klaus.
A professor of economics who splits his time between the Czech Republic and the United States, Švejnar is often criticized by his opponents for his emigrant status and his affiliation with ČSOB, one of the country’s largest banks.
“I cannot imagine the republic would be headed by someone who comes here as though he’s going on a safari — coming here to have fun and making millions by sitting on the supervisory board of some bank,” Interior Minister and ODS member Ivan Langer told the weekly Týden Jan. 21. “For me, Klaus is the Czech Republic and Švejnar is just a hunter who comes here for shooting and entertainment.”
While initially dismissive of Švejnar’s “Westernized” campaign strategy, Klaus recently accepted his opponent’s invitation to a potentially televised debate Jan. 29 in the Senate, which will be the first such debate between presidential candidates in the country’s history.

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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