Leaders of governing parties fail to agree on joint candidate for president

The leaders of the three parties in the governing coalition have failed to agree on a joint candidate for president. As they left a meeting in Prague on Tuesday morning, the leader of the Social Democrats, Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla, Christian Democrat chairman Cyril Svoboda and Freedom Union head Petr Mares said they would hold negotiations on the issue with the other parties in parliament during the next three weeks. Two recent attempts to elect a successor to President Vaclav Havel have ended in failure.