PM Fischer only to continue in office if MPs approve sweeping cost-cutting measures

Interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer has said that his cabinet is willing to govern the country until regular elections next June only on two conditions. Firstly, Mr Fischer says he wants the lower house to renew his cabinet’s mandate, which was due to last until early elections this October, but which will now have to be extended. Secondly, Mr Fischer has said that his cabinet will resign if MPs do not vote for his package of cost-cutting measures to lower next year’s budget deficit from the predicted 230 billion crowns (13.1 billion USD). Without such measures, Finance Minister Eduard Janota has warned, the Czech Republic will find itself in a dire financial situation. MPs have previously greeted the interim cabinet’s cost-cutting package with a lukewarm response. In an announcement on Tuesday, interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer said he was ‘surprised’ by the Social Democrats’ decision to renege on early elections, and that he would only continue to govern the country should MPs pledge to lower the state deficit to below 170 billion crowns (9.8 billion USD).