Czech elections: Profiles and issues

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (CNN) -- The top two parties do have differences on issues like taxation and social services, but this is also a clash of personalities and styles:

The Social Democrats are led by Vladimir Spidla.

He took over the party leadership from Prime Minister Milos Zeman, who is retiring after the election.

Spidla has a Ph.D. in history and is often described with words like "diligent," "competent," and "methodical." However, words like "uncharismatic" are also used.

He can point to a solid record of economic growth in the last two years. But the budget is also being strained by a deficit that is expected to top one billion dollars this year.

He has unleashed some personal comments against Klaus in the last week. He accused the former prime minister of losing touch with reality for comparing the Social Democrats to 19th Century socialists.

Civic Democrat leader Vaclav Klaus, the former prime minister, is the more colourful candidate, known for his biting comments and aggressive campaign style.

However, his critics call him arrogant.

Klaus is an admirer of Margaret Thatcher and has called on voters to get rid of what he called the "old socialist junk" of the governing Social Democrats.

But his words do sound a little hollow. That is because Klaus himself made the deal four years ago to tolerate a minority Social Democratic government in return for some of the spoils of power, including the presidency of the parliament for himself.

These top two candidates held informal debates on Czech television programmes -- and pundits in the Czech media gave a lot of credit to Spidla and his methodical point-making.

Main issues

One of the big issues is the Czech drive to join the European Union in 2004.

All the major parties, except the Communists, support accession. However, the Civic Democrats also appear to be Eurosceptics raising some big reservations.

They say they do not want to be a member of the EU if it impinges on what they call Czech national interests.

They want guarantees from the EU that the Benes Decrees would not be repealed.

The decrees issued by Czech President Edvard Benes after World War II expelled millions of Sudeten Germans and thousands of Hungarians, stripping them of property and Czech citizenship.

Loud voices from Germany, Hungary and Austria are demanding the repeal, and some are trying to use membership in the EU as a lever.

The issue sends shivers down the spines of many Czech voters and Klaus has tried to capitalize on that by saying he would not recommend European Union membership without strong property guarantees in advance from the EU.