Governing coalition to continue with reduced role for Freedom Union - Kolar

The governing three-party coalition is likely to continue, but with a reduced role in cabinet for the right-of-centre Freedom Union, the party's deputy leader Robert Kolar said on Sunday. The coalition was rocked on Friday, when the Freedom Union's Hana Marvanova voted against a government tax bill, and then refused to give up her seat in the Chamber of Deputies. The prime minister and leader of the Social Democrats, Vladimir Spidla, has been holding talks with the chairman of the Freedom Union, Ivan Pilip, and the leader of the Christian Democrats, Cyril Svoboda, to try and find a way out of the current crisis.

The coalition has a majority of one in the 200-seat lower house, and the Freedom Union currently have three ministerial seats. Mr Kolar said his party were likely to lose one or two seats in cabinet. It had appeared on Saturday that Prime Minister Spidla would attempt to form a minority coalition with the Christian Democrats alone.