Mf Dnes: Social Democrats have Plan B for Paroubek

The Czech daily Mladá fronta Dnes has reported that the Social Democratic Party is preparing a back-up plan if the party wins the upcoming election but is unable to form a coalition government, due to opposition from potential coalition partners to party leader Jiří Paroubek. The Friday edition of the daily writes that it has information the party would be willing to drop Mr Paroubek as a candidate for prime minister if coalition partners pledged to support his bid for the presidency in three year’s time. Mr Paroubek has publically denied any such scenario. Although he has admitted an interest by the Social Democrats to form a coalition with smaller parties, he criticised two of them - TOP 09 and Public Affairs - saying their leaders needed to stop “fantasising about who should be the top Social Democrat”, the daily wrote. Polls have consistently put the Social Democrats on track to win next week’s election.