The President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, has narrowly won re-election for a second five-year term this week. The former dissident playwright is widely respected abroad, but his performance at home has been more critically received. The 61 year old hero of his country's bloodless overthrow of the communist regime has also suffered from repeated bouts of illness since undergoing surgery for lung cancer just over a year ago, and is entering his second presidential term at a time when perceptions of him are beginning to change:

President Havel's new year address in which aside from discussing the Czech Republic's current political turmoil he also pondered the question of whether life was, in essence, beautiful, and urged his countrymen to endeavour to make it so. It was classic Vaclav Havel - as Jan Hartl from the STEM opinion poll agency emphasises. "Havel is in a way a philosopher, a humanitarian orientated personality who accentuates the general values which are not only the tasks of day-to-day politics," he said.

"It gives Vaclav Havel a little eccentricity, in fact he's quite alone in this respect on the political scene. On the other hand it gives him a credibility, a credibility of a man who is not swallowed by everyday problems and is committed more to the future, and the long-term success of the transformation of society."

It was these qualities which made Vaclav Havel one of communist Czechoslovakia's foremost dissidents, and the natural choice to lead the country into democracy after 1989.

Revival of the playwright President

But recently Mr Havel has again taken a more active political role, and contributed to the fall of the former prime minister, Vaclav Klaus, with a highly critical speech which sparked widespread controversy. Journalist and former dissident Jan Urban believes the Czech President is in fact a natural in the smoke-filled rooms of political intrigue.

Mr Urban said: "He is excellent in shady deals among different political groups, unfortunately he was unable to use this influence for most of the time between 89 and now.

"Only the collapse of the government coalition in 1997 opened the space for him again. Right now he's more important than ever because the political party need a time out to go through elections in a decent, effective way, without flying accusations of corruption, and Havel can serve as a factor that would calm down, brought politicians to the negotiating table and represent this kind of mainstream."

Vaclav Havel's changing role as President is also reflected by the views of ordinary Czechs in the streets of Prague. One Czech woman told the BBC: "It's a difficult question. I like the way he brings a sense of good timing into politics and makes people think about things with greater perspective, and not just from their own small-town individual interests. But I think that lately I'm not as satisfied with him as I was."

Carrying on despite illness

There are fears for the Czech President's health. Mr Havel had a cancerous tumour removed, along with half of his lung, in an operation about a year ago. And since then has often fallen ill. But Jan Urban does not believe Mr Havel's health poses any threat to his political future, or to the stability of Czech politics.

"I think that we're talking about a very tough guy," he said. "He may look old and ill but it is still the fighter who was ready to spend more than five years in prison, when he was deadly ill as well and still went his course. I'm not afraid of Vaclav Havel giving up."

Another opinion pollster Jan Hartl also believes Mr Havel is now once again entering a new phase in his life.

"Soon after he recovered from the lung cancer surgery he married with a well-known actress, and this means perhaps a new period in his life not only in that he survived a serious illness but it also gives him a new and insecure position, because he is not that abstract and remote as he used to be in the past, and the developmental tasks of society are different at the moment and perhaps the new issues and topics will be addressed with a new Vaclav Havel," he said.

There seems little doubt that Mr Havel is at a cross-roads, both as a man and a politician. Although his position in Czech politics appears unchallenged and he is admired abroad, there is a question mark over whether his narrow victory in the election might dilute his influence.
 

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