(b. Bohemia, 19 June 1941) Czech; Czechoslovak Minister of Finance 1990 – 2, Czech premier 1992 – , chairman of the House of Deputies 1998 – 2002, president in 1993 and 2003 – Klaus made a career in Prague's Institute of Economic Forecasting, an organization which became critical of the Husák regime's failure to introduce economic reforms in the 1980s. When the "Velvet Revolution" started in November 1989, Klaus joined the Czech opposition organization, Civic Forum (CF). At the beginning of 1990 he became Minister of Finance. With Vladimír Dlouhý, the Minister for Planning, he advocated economic shock therapy. He was opposed by President Havel and by Valtr Komárek, the first Deputy Prime Minister who favoured a more moderate move towards the market. After the elections of June 1990 Klaus remained Minister of Finance, whereas Komárek left the government. On 1 January 1991 the government introduced a programme of economic shock therapy. In the spring of 1992 Klaus's reforms progressed further when thoroughgoing privatization measures were introduced.

During 1990, Civic Forum splintered into different political groups. The Interparliamentary Group of the Democratic Right backed Klaus's monetarist policies and ensured his election as leader of Civic Forum in October 1990. He stated that his aim was to transform CF into a party of the centre-right, which led to conflict with those who wanted it to remain an umbrella organization. In February 1991 CF split into a Civic Democratic Party (CDP) led by Klaus and a Civic Movement of social-democrat orientation. In June 1992 the CDP was the single largest party in the Czech National Council. Klaus became Czech premier.

The CDP's electoral success in the Czech Republic was paralleled by that of separatist groups led by Vladimír Mečiar in Slovakia. In the subsequent negotiations between the two republics, Klaus refused to yield to Slovak demands which he regarded as excessive and threatening to his economic reforms. No compromise was reached and on 1 January 1993 the Czechoslovak federation was dissolved.

(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.

klaus kobec	mark klaus
klaus ornaments	klaus mueller