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Marian Bielesz, a former Freedom Union deputy, has said he may give up his mandate this week. The announcement is being linked to Stanislav Gross' efforts to gain a Parliamentary majority for a new government. If he gives up his parliament post, Mr. Bielesz would be replaced by a loyal member of the Freedom Union, which wants to form an old-new government along with the Social Democrats and the Christian Democratic Party. With the extra vote, the coalition would have 101 votes in the 200 seat Lower House.

Radio Prague has launched a new web page for Czech ex-pats living abroad. Its aim is to assist communication among the various ex-pat organizations abroad and strengthen links to their homeland. The address is www.krajane.net.

The government is expected on Wednesday to discuss a plan to trim the 2006 budget deficit to four percent of GDP, gross domestic product, with an eye toward meeting the Maastricht criteria in 2008 and adopting the EU currency, the Euro, before the end of the decade. Under the terms of the EU's "Stability and Growth Pact," governments cannot run a budget deficit greater than 3 per cent of GDP, nor can they have a debt ratio of more than 60 per cent of GDP. Thanks to taking on unusually high "one-off" loan guarantees, the Czech Republic last year posted a 12.9 per cent budget deficit as a percentage of GDP — the largest of any EU country. This year it is likely to be 6 per cent.

The acting leader of the Social Democrats, Stanislav Gross, has announced plans to meet with opposition party leaders on next week, to sound out possible support for a new coalition government. On Saturday Mr Gross contacted the leader of the Communist Party, Miroslav Grebenicek, to set a meeting on Thursday; one day earlier he will meet with Miroslav Topolanek, the leader of the right-of-centre Civic Democrats. Mr Gross was asked by Czech president Vaclav Klaus on Friday to begin talks towards forming a new coalition government. However, negotiations so far have shown it will be difficult for Mr Gross to secure the 101 votes the new government will need to clinch a mandate in the chamber of deputies. The outgoing coalition government was based on the constellation of three parties relying precisely on the thinnest of majorities.

Mr Gross has said he would still prefer solving the government crisis among the Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats, and the Freedom Union, the last of which can no longer count on support of all its deputies' club members.

Meanwhile, junior government members, the Christian Democrats, have already announced they will not sit in any cabinet relying on tacit support from the largely unreformed Communist Party.