CZECH TELEGRAPH

Ex President Havel Goes Green

17. 3. 2010

In a public letter entitled "We Choose the Green Party", the former dissident presents dozens of other endorsements by respected intellectuals and known personalities. Havel already supported the Green Party on the previous elections.

This year, with the creation of various smaller parties, mostly based around a couple of big names who broke up with their traditional affiliation, plus a controversial series of internal disputes over their role in the center right coalition of the previous government is hurting them in the polls, which indicate a swinging aroung the minimum 5% of the votes to get into parliament.

The former dissident, who became president of the then Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution of November 1989, has great prestige internationally, but a limited influence in Czech Republic. He is well seen and serves as a vector for some parts of the Czech populations, most notably among artists, intellectuals and more left minded citizens. So the amount of new voters for the Green Party that he can attract by declaring his support is not far reaching, potentially arriving only at the ears of those who would already be inclined to vote for the Greens.

The release of the manifest was also marked by the announcement that former dissident and Minister of Interior Jan Ruml, a traditional Havel ally, who helped break apart then premier's Václav Klaus government by leaving his center right Civic Democrats party (ODS) and co-founded the center right party Freedom Union (Unie svobody - US), has become a member of the Green Party, ressurecting his political career.

Vytisknout