Government to ask for confidence on Tuesday

The minority cabinet of Civic Democrat Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek will ask the lower house of parliament for confidence on Tuesday, three months after the June general elections which produced a perfect split between the rightist and leftist blocs in the lower chamber. Both former PM Jiri Paroubek's Social Democrats and the Communists have pledged to reject the government in the vote. Owing to that the chances of Mirek Topolanek's cabinet receiving confidence from the chamber are slim. If it loses the vote, the cabinet will have to resign. In such a case, a new prime minister appointed by President Vaclav Klaus would put together a new cabinet which would again need to seek a majority support in the lower house.