Klaus, Václav

Klaus, Václav (vät`släf klous), 1941–, Czech politician. A free-market economist and leader of the Civic Democratic party, he has been one of Eastern Europe's most 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.