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Lidovky.cz

Czech gov’t faces no-confidence vote amid unrest

  10:00

Czech center-right government faces the no-confidence vote amid increasing unrest within the ruling coalition – and among the public 

Bohuslav Sobotka zvítězil až ve druhém kole volby. foto: ILUSTRAČeská pozice

The biggest Czech opposition party, the left-of-center Social Democrats (ČSSD) will attempt to unseat the three-way center-right coalition government of Prime Minister Petr Nečas (Civic Democrat, ODS) in a vote-of-no-confidence on Tuesday evening.

The lower house of parliament math gives little chance that the ČSSD protest against a new round of spending cuts and tax hikes being prepared by the government will succeed. The government is expected to be able to muster up to 114 votes in its favor from the main coalition party, the ODS, TOP 09, and Public Affairs (VV) parties. A no-confidence vote would require 101 votes in the 200-seat chamber to unseat the government.

Only one no-confidence vote has ever succeeded in recent Czech history, the March 2009 vote which toppled the center-right government of Mirek Topolánek (ODS) mid-way through the country’s presidency of the EU’s council of ministers and replaced it with a caretaker government.

 But there are signs of increased fragility in the brittle three-way coalition that signal it could face serious threats to surviving a full four year term. Czech daily Lidové noviny reported Tuesday that members of the second biggest coalition party, TOP 09, are ready to desert the government if a guilty verdict is returned in the ongoing trail of the de facto leader of the VV party, Vít Bárta.

Bárta is on trial for alleged bribes to fellow VV members of parliament for their loyalty and silence over the party’s sensitive internal dealings. The business man and joint founder of one of the country’s biggest security companies says the payments were just loans. The trial is set to resume at the start of April.

Lidové noviny quoted the head of TOP 09’s parliamentary group, Petr Gazdík, saying that a guilty verdict for former transport minister Bárta would transform some of TOP 09’s deputies into voters against the government in any future confidence motion.

TOP 09 trouble

The paper said a survey of TOP 09’s 41 lower house members showed many were prepared to turn against the coalition if tough measures against VV in the case of a guilty verdict, such as exclusion from top government posts, were not taken.

ČSSD leader Bohuslav Sobotka has indicated that Tuesday’s no confidence motion is unlikely to be the last this year, though the party leadership admit that this time round it will serve more as a lightning rod for opposition to the unpopular government than a real attempt at its overthrow.

Thousands of Czechs rallied to demonstrations called by a civic initiative whose main demand is for the immediate resignation of the government and head of state, President Václav Klaus, and the replacement of the former with a caretaker government. Demonstrations are set to continue this week. The country's biggest grouping of unions called for a nationwide protest against the government on April 21 with education and health workers having already given notice of their readiness to strike against budget cuts and threatened lay-offs. 

Šárka Hamrusová: Díky laktační poradkyni jsem si přestala myslet, že je chyba ve mně
Šárka Hamrusová: Díky laktační poradkyni jsem si přestala myslet, že je chyba ve mně

Šárka chtěla kojit. Chvíli to ale vypadalo, že se jí to nepodaří. Díky správně zvolené laktační poradkyni nakonec dosáhla úspěchu. Poslechněte si...