Opposition Social Democrats express readiness to form interim government

The opposition Social Democrats say they would accept a second attempt to form a government should Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok’s cabinet fail to win a vote of confidence in the lower house. Party leader Bohuslav Sobotka said on Friday that although the Social Democrats still favoured early elections as a resolution to the ongoing government crisis, they felt it was important to give the president an alternative to a centre-right coalition government led by the coalition’s nominee for prime minister Miroslava Nemcová. Under the Constitution the Czech president has two attempts at nominating a prime minister designate and the third goes to the speaker of the lower house, coincidentally Ms. Nemcová herself.