PRAGUE — Vaclav Klaus, the departing president of the Czech Republic, has equated the European Union to the former Soviet bloc, blamed the euro for the Greek crisis and called the single currency a mistake. He has even refused to hang the Union’s gold-starred flag at the Prague Castle, the seat of the Czech president.

So when Mr. Klaus, a Thatcher-loving economist who became a potent spokesman for continental Europhobes, steps down next week to make way for Milos Zeman as president, euro enthusiasts here will rejoice. Mr. Zeman has not only promised to hang the Union’s flag at the castle but has also suggested a referendum on whether to join the euro zone and suggested 2017 as the earliest possible date for entry.

But the celebrating could be premature. While the presidency, a largely ceremonial post, has the power to influence the debate, the Czech Republic remains deeply polarized between a business community clamoring to get into the euro club and skeptics who associate the currency with the economic pain buffeting Europe’s southern tier.

More than 80 percent of Czechs are against entering the euro zone, according to the latest Eurobarometer poll, making the Czechs the strongest opponents among the seven former Soviet bloc members in the European Union that have yet to join. Deeply resistant to embracing the euro’s one-size-fits-all monetary policy and loath to bail out cash-poor countries like Greece, many policy makers here insist that the Czech Republic is a striking example of why life outside the euro is simply better.