High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Václav Klaus (Czech pronunciation: [ va tslaf klaus]; born 19 June 1941) is the second President of the Czech Republic (since 2003, reelected 2008) and a former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (1992 1997). An economist by trade, he is co-founder of the Civic Democratic Party, the Czech Republic's largest center-right political party. Klaus, who is a eurosceptic, is opposed to the Lisbon treaty, which at one point needed his signature to come into force. He has been called "the Margaret Thatcher of Central Europe".