Leaders of the Civic Democrats and Social Democrats no closer to agreement

Leaders of the two major political parties in the Czech Republic—the Civic Democrats and the Social Democrats—have met again, but they have not yet reached an agreement on support for the developing centre-right coalition. Mirek Topolanek, the Civic Democratic leader, is looking for additional support from the Social Democrats that would give his 100-seat coalition with the Christian Democrats and the Greens a chance of survival. However, meetings between Mr. Topolanek and Jiri Paroubek, the Social Democratic leader and outgoing prime minister, have produced little in the way of a satisfactory compromise. Their next meeting is scheduled for Friday.

Mr. Topolanek told the daily Hospodarske Noviny that he is estimating a 50:50 chance that his coalition will survive a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies. According to Mr. Topolanek, the Social Democrats are trying to eliminate the smaller parties, especially the Christian Democrats, from a coalition agreement. Relations between the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats have been very strained since spring 2005, when the Social Democratic Prime Minister Stanislav Gross was forced to step-down after accusations of financial misdealing; he did not receive support from Christian Democrats who were then members of the government coalition.