News

Inspired by the U.S. Republican Party's pre-election campaign, the Czech Civic Democratic Party has began using the telephone as a means of gaining voters. On Sunday, several Czech citizens were surprised to hear the voice of Civic Democrat leader Vaclav Klaus on the telephone, warning them against the dangers of socialism and urging citizens not to vote for left-of-centre parties at this weekend's election. However, instead of having a positive effect on potential voters, many of those called said the method of campaigning was an invasion of privacy, saying they did not like being held on the line by automatic messages, telling them who to vote for.

With less than a week to go until the general elections, the leader of the ruling Social Democrats has ruled out the possibility of a coalition with the right-of-centre Civic Democrats. Vladimir Spidla, appearing on a TV discussion programme with the Civic Democrat leader Vaclav Klaus, said there were large differences between the two parties on major policy issues such as pension reform, taxation, and EU membership. Mr Spidla said he preferred a coalition with the right-of-centre opposition Coalition grouping, but raised the prospect of another minority government should such a coalition prove impossible. The Social Democrats are now slightly ahead of the Civic Democrats in the opinion polls, but neither party is expected to win an outright majority.

The European Union's commissioner for enlargement Guenter Verheugen has warned that a second rejection of the EU's Nice Treaty in an Irish referendum later this year would lead to a delay in the bloc's plans to expand to the east. Mr Verheugen told reporters a second "no" vote would cause extremely serious problems for which he had no solutions. He said the EU had no "plan B" should ratification fail. Up to 10 countries - including the Czech Republic - are hoping to join the EU in 2004. The Nice Treaty implements reforms the EU says are needed in order to admit more states. Last June's referendum in Ireland - the only EU member to require a referendum on the issue - rejected the treaty, amid fears of a threat to Ireland's neutrality and concern that smaller states would lose out.

The leader of the governing Social Democrats, Vladimir Spidla, has said that he is in favour of a referendum on the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union. Mr Spidla said on Friday that he could not imagine how such an important issue as joining the EU could be decided without a referendum, adding that he still had a "bad taste" in his mouth over the fact that Czechoslovakia was divided in 1993 without a referendum being held.