Social Democrats slipped further in public opinion polls during appointment of new Prime Minister - CVVM

The ruling Social Democrats have slipped further in the opinion polls despite replacing the prime minister, a poll by the CVVM agency showed on Thursday. The poll was conducted between April 18 and April 25, during which time former regional development minister Jiri Paroubek replaced Stanislav Gross as prime minister, amid allegations of unethical behaviour surrounding Mr Gross' personal finances and his wife's business dealings. The new CVVM poll puts the Social Democrats at 10.5 percent support compared with 14.5 percent support one month ago. The centre-right Civic Democrats retain a commanding lead of 31 percent support, while the largely unreformed Communist party polled at 16.5 percent. The Christian Democrats have the support of 8.5 percent of those polled, enough to cross the 5 percent threshold necessary for parliamentary representation.