Referendum on EU Constitution central to new government programme
On Tuesday morning Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek presented the policy agenda of the new government. Or should we say 'new-old' government, as all but four Cabinet ministers from the previous government of Prime Minister Stanislav Gross remain in office. The new governing coalition also consists of the same political parties as before - led by the Social Democrats. What are the priorities of this new-old government? How do they differ from those of the previous government?
The new government of Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek says, in fact, it is not very different from the previous one. The Cabinet ministers and coalition party leaders say they want to continue the policy line of the previous two Social Democratic-led governments, of Vladimir Spidla and Stanislav Gross.
However, with European Union member states set to hold referendums or vote in their national parliaments on the European Constitutional treaty next year, Mr Paroubek's government will be stressing its pro-European orientation perhaps even more. The Prime Minister has said he would prefer to adopt the treaty in a referendum. And in the following weeks, his Cabinet will already start to work on and information campaign that would advise the people on how to vote in the referendum.
"I want to say that this government would like to adopt the European Constitutional Treaty by a general referendum and I presume that it could take place at the same time as general elections; that is, next year. Another very important issue that has been discussed a lot in recent weeks is the strategy of economic growth in the Czech Republic in the period 2005-2013. Based on this strategy, we will elaborate other materials regarding the financial perspective of the European Union in the years 2007-2013."
Given the fact that this government of Jiri Paroubek is pro-European, are they sure that they succeed? Do they believe they convince the people to vote in favour of the European constitution?
I think they look quite optimistic. Jiri Paroubek said he believes that the majority of Czechs are also pro-European and he criticised the opposition Civic Democrats for having what he called an inconsistent policy agenda in this respect.
"It is necessary that the voters of the Civic Democrats learn from the party's leaders what is their real attitude to the European Union. I know that 80 percent of their voters are in favour of the European Constitution, but the leadership of this party has a rather different policy. These are discrepancies in the policy of the Civic Democrats. And of course, we want to point to their inconsistent policy, which isn't credible. To point this out is the legitimate right of any government."
Of course approving the European Constitutional treaty it is not the only point of the agenda. The document has 25 pages and lists all different fields of government policy. For example they want to stabilize public finances - to lower the budget deficit to make the Czech Republic better prepared to adopt Euro in the future. They are also preparing a system to support housing construction, they want to encourage export; there is pension reform on the list. One of the major goals is also the reduction of unemployment, which is almost nine percent right now. Here the Prime Minister made a very particular commitment and promised that it will be at least a half percent lower in the end of his term that is next year.
