Mf Dnes: Social Democrats to hold leadership conference in spring of 2011

The Social Democratic Party, which fared worse in last week’s than most analysts expected, has begun analysing possible reasons for its weak finish, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes writes. The newspaper notes on Saturday that acting party head Bohuslav Sobotka and others agreed that a new chairman would only be sought in a leadership conference in early 2011. The party has put off the idea for an earlier conference in the fall to prevent possible political infighting ahead of the communal elections. On Friday, almost a week after the election, former chairman Jiří Paroubek spoke to fellow Social Democrats, largely blaming the right-wing media and newcomers Public Affairs for his party’s poor result, the paper said.