Centre-right coalition proposes to copy Social Democrats' policy programme

The Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats, and the Greens, who have been trying to form a coalition government, have offered to base their policy programme on the pre-election manifesto of the Social Democrats. The centre-right coalition is one vote short of a majority in the lower house of Parliament and has been negotiating with the Social Democrats to gain their vote of confidence.

Even though the coalition says it would copy the ten-point manifesto word for word, the Social Democrats have rejected the offer and called it a joke. Social Democrat leader and outgoing Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek accused the coalition parties of using the offer as a "marketing trick". Talks will continue on Wednesday to find other ways out of the political deadlock.