Christian Democrats abandon idea of coalition with Mayors group

The Christian Democrats have dropped a plan to run as a coalition with the Mayors and Independents group in October’s general elections. Instead they would like representatives of the Mayors to run on the Christian Democrats’ candidates lists, chairman Pavel Bělobrádek said after a meeting of senior party leaders on Tuesday evening. The Mayors are due to respond to the Christian Democrats’ proposal next week but leader Petr Gazdík says he still believes in a coalition. The two groupings, who struck a deal in April, would need to achieve double the electoral threshold – meaning 10 percent in total – to make it into the Chamber of Deputies if they ran in unison.