Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on Czech Republic & Greece

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STAT	Czech Republic	Greece	HISTORY
Head of state > Term limit for head of state	5 Ranked 68th. The same as Greece	5 Ranked 80th.
President	Milos Zeman	Karolos Papoulias
President > Profile	<p>Former prime minister Milos Zeman won the first direct Czech presidential election in January 2013, beating conservative Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg by a margin of 55% to 45%.</p> <p>Unlike his predecessor, the notoriously euro-sceptic Vaclav Klaus, Mr Zeman describes himself as a euro-federalist and is an advocate of closer European integration, though he believes that the Czech Republic should take its time over joining the euro.</p> <p>Like Mr Klaus, Mr Zeman thrives on confrontation and is keen to exercise his presidential powers to the full, even if this means entering into conflict with the Czech government.</p> <p>His appointment of a close ally, Jiri Rusnok, as prime minister following the resignation of Petr Necas in June 2013 met with the fierce opposition of the main political parties, who accused him of staging a power-grab.</p> <p>Mr Zeman&#039;s critics said that the move undermined democracy and accused him of trying to introduce a semi-presidential system, which one outgoing minister from the Necas government described as &quot;Putinesque&quot;. </p> <p>Mr Zeman effectively retired from politics in 2003, after failing to beat Mr Klaus in the election to succeed Vaclav Havel as president. Even his own Social Democratic party split over whether to back him. </p> <p>Political analysts attribute his spectacular comeback to his harnessing of discontent among older and poorer voters with the Necas government&#039;s handling of the economic downturn.</p> <p>In his younger days, he was frequently dismissed from various posts because of his criticism of the Communist system&#039;s economic failings, and played a prominent part in the Civic Forum movement that helped oust the pro-Soviet government in 1989. </p> <p>He rose to be Social Democratic prime minister in 1998-2002, but quit the party after his presidential election humiliation the following year. He now leads the small social-democratic Party of Civic Rights, which does not have any seats in parliament.</p>	<p>Born in 1929, veteran Pan Hellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) foreign minister Karolos Papoulias was elected president by parliament in 2004, and again for a final five-year term in 2010.</p> <p>The presidency is a largely ceremonial post, as executive power resides with the prime minister, but Greece&#039;s debt crisis has thrust President Papoulias into the political foreground as he tries to maintain a stable government in the face of public anger and a divided political class.</p>
President > Summary	President Zeman has been accused of attempting to undermine the Czech parliamentary system	President Karolos Papoulias
Prime Minister	Bohuslav Sobotka	Antonis Samaras
Prime Minister > Profile	<p>Social Democratic party leader Bohuslav Sobotka was formally appointed as prime minister by President Zeman in January 2014, almost three months after an early election in October 2013 that was triggered by the fall of the centre-right government led by Petr Necas in June.</p><p>Following the abrupt departure of Mr Necas - who had become embroiled in a spying, sex and bribery scandal - President Zeman appointed his former economic adviser, Jiri Rusnok, to head a government of experts.</p> <p>However, Mr Rusnok&#039;s administration was deeply resented by the main political parties, who contended that the president&#039;s action was intended to undermine the authority of parliament, and after the new caretaker government failed to win a confidence vote in August, MPs voted to dissolve parliament, paving the way for the October election.</p> <p>The Social Democrats emerged from these elections as the party with the greatest number of votes, but not enough to govern on its own. Following protracted efforts to assemble a viable government, the Social Democrats reached a framework coalition agreement with two other parties - the pro-business ANO party led by billionaire Andrej Babis and the Christian Democrats - in December.</p> <p>Talks on the allocation of ministerial portfolios were further complicated by President Zeman&#039;s insistence on being consulted, and by the fact that Mr Sobotka belongs to the Social Democrat faction that parted company with Mr Zeman in the early 2000s. </p> <p>Analysts attribute Mr Zeman&#039;s apparent foot-dragging over the confirmation of Mr Sobotka as prime minister to deep-rooted tensions between the two men.</p> <p>The normally mild-mannered Mr Sobotka stood his ground, declaring that he would be prepared to go to the constitutional court if the president attempted to block his cabinet appointments.</p> <p>He has also indicated that his government will prepare constitutional changes designed to curb the president&#039;s powers.</p> <p>On his appointment, Mr Sobotka pledged to end the political gridlock that had paralysed policy making for seven months and revive economic growth following the country&#039;s longest recession on record.</p> <p>He has promised to boost the economy by reversing what he has described as the former centre-right government&#039;s &quot;deadly spiral&quot; of austerity measures.</p> <p>However, his social spending plans may meet with opposition from the Social Democrats&#039; coalition partners.</p> <p>The new Czech prime minister is also keen for the country to play a fuller role in EU politics, after the eurosceptic course pursued by centre-right governments for most of the previous decade. </p> <p>Mr Sobotka was born in the Moravian village of Telnice in 1971. A trained lawyer, he has been a member of parliament since 1996 and served as finance minister in 2002-6. He joined the Social Democrats in 1989 and has led the party since 2011.</p>	<p>The leader of the conservative New Democracy party since 2009, veteran politician Antonis Samaras formed a coalition government in June 2012 committed to pushing through the austerity package required to secure European Union and IMF funds. </p> <p>His party won a relative majority at the May general election, but was unable to rally enough support among other parties. A second election in June boosted New Democracy enough to ensure that, in alliance with the Socialist Pasok party and the small Democratic Left, Mr Samaras could become prime minister.</p> <p>A US-educated economist from a prominent family, Mr Samaras has been a highly contentious figure in New Democracy. </p> <p>He entered parliament in 1977 and became first finance and then foreign minister under Konstantinos Mitsotakis in 1989. </p> <p>His hard line over newly-independent Macedonia&#039;s use of that name led to his dismissal the following year, and he formed his own short-lived rightwing party. This split New Democracy and brought down the government in 1993.</p> <p>As the fortunes of his breakaway party waned, Mr Samaras made overtures to New Democracy and rejoined in 2004, become a European MP and then returning to the Greek parliament in 2007. </p> <p>He won the party leadership five years later, and burnished his divisive reputation by expelling rival Dora Bakogiannis in 2010 over her support for the Pasok government&#039;s first EU-IMF bailout deal.</p> <p>With Greece facing bankruptcy he agreed to support the second bailout and the 2011-2012 governments of national unity, and made his peace with Ms Bakogiannis after the May 2012 election.</p> <p>Mr Samaras won in June 2012 on a programme of softening some of the terms of the austerity package, such as restoring some pension cuts and directing bailout money to job creation projects. </p> <p>His government has to a certain extent stabilised the fiscal crisis by pushing through many of the austerity measures required as the price of international bailouts, despite substantial public opposition to spending cuts.</p> <p>However, the need to impose deeply unpopular measures exacerbated tensions between Mr Samaras and his coalition partners, and in June 2013 Democratic Left exited the government following the breakdown of talks over the future of the state broadcaster ERT. The departure of Democratic Left reduced the governing coalition&#039;s parliamentary majority to just three.</p>
Prime Minister > Summary	Mr Sobotka has vowed to reverse the eurosceptic course of previous Czech governments	Greek premier Samaras

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