News

The Social Democrats would receive the backing of 32.6 percent of the electorate, suggests a poll carried out by the STEM agency at the beginning of this month. The Civic Democrats would be supported by 22.3 percent of voters, followed by the Communist Party with 11.8, the Greens with 8.4 percent and the Christian Democrats with 5.8 percent, indicated the survey, which was released on Tuesday.

A proposal by Regional Development Minister Jiří Čunek to place members of the country’s Roma community into three categories, with the lowest being forced to live in supervised centres, has been described by Romany groups as a ploy ahead of regional and Senate elections. Mr Čunek won a Senate seat – and the leadership of the Christian Democrats – two years ago, after forcing Romany rent defaulters out of the centre of a town where he was mayor. With more than a month to go until the elections, Čunek is already playing the Romany card, Zdeněk Ryšavý of the Romea civic association said on Tuesday. The proposal has little chance of being considered by Jiří Čunek’s cabinet colleagues.

A vote of no-confidence in the centre-right government which the opposition Social Democrats plan to call after the upcoming local and Senate elections has led to fears within the ruling coalition that it may not survive the vote. The concerns have been voiced amidst increasing turmoil within the majority coalition party due to a recent scandal involving potential blackmail of party members. The coalition currently has 100 seats in the 200 seat parliament – its mandate was gained through several Social Democrat defectors who voted for the coalition. However, concerns have been raised that as many as five party rebels may now vote against the government.

In related news, Czech President Václav Klaus has weighed in on the current scandal rocking the Civic Democrats. In comments made to the media, Mr Klaus, who established the party in the 1990s, stated that the current scandal was symptomatic of the emptiness of current politics which remain excessively focused on turf wars and power struggles. Fellow Civic Democrats were quick to distance themselves from the analysis. Prime Minister Topolánek, Interior Minister Ivan Langer and several other senior Civic Democrats publicly denied that Mr Klaus’s characterization was applicable, stating that that description was of a bygone era and not the current situation. In an interview with the Czech daily Hospodářské Noviny, Mr Topolánek stated that the era of the opposition agreement between the two major parties from 1998-2002 – a time when Mr Klaus led the party – was a time in which politics and business were unhealthily interwoven. The comments underline increasing tensions between Mr Klaus, the current honorary head of the Civic Democrats and Mr Topolánek.