What's to be done with Václav Klaus?

Now that the Polish president, Lech Kaczyński, ratified the Lisbon Treaty on 10 October, Václav Klaus is the odd man out. After having aired fears his country would suffer a loss of sovereignty, the Czech president is now brandishing the threat that the treaty will enable exiled Sudeten Germans to reclaim property seized after World War II in Czech Sudetenland. “No such danger exists,” writes Lidové Noviny, summing up the opinion of constitutional experts. “The Czech president is breaking down an open door,” comments the Prague daily, pointing out that the question of the Beneš decrees, which targeted Czechoslovakia’s German minority in 1945, was already examined when the Czech Republic joined the Union in 2004. “The press and politicians are wondering what to do about Klaus,” reports Lidové Noviny. According to the paper, French and German diplomats suggest two ways of putting an end to Klaus’ obstructionism: “Either revoke his veto or change the constitution to strip the head of state of his power of veto.”