Talks on forming a new government

The winner of the weekend's general elections, the centre right Civic Democrats, are holding talks with the Christian Democratic Party and the Greens to try and set up a viable coalition government. The leaders of all three parties said on Tuesday there were no fundamental obstacles to forming a joint government and they would start work on the preparation of a coalition agreement. The talks are complicated because of the election stalemate in which the centre-right and centre-left each won 100 seats in the Lower House.

The leader of the Civic Democratic Party Mirek Topolanek has said he would try to form a viable government without betraying the party's policy programme. The stalemate in the Lower House means that the Civic Democratic Party will have to convince at least one member of the opposition - either the Social Democrats or the Communists to either leave the Chamber or support the new cabinet during the vote of confidence.