PM Spidla lives to fight another day after no-confidence vote fails

Well it was close, but not that close: the centre-left coalition survived Friday morning's vote of no-confidence in parliament, called by the opposition Civic Democrats. In the end the much-hyped government rebellion over the package of planned public finance reforms failed to materialise - only one coalition MP abstained from the vote, and that wasn't enough to sink the government.

PM Spidla lives to fight another day after no-confidence vote fails

Vladimir Spidla, photo: CTK

This vote was called over the government's spending cuts, designed to prepare the Czech economy for eventual adoption of the euro. But the government has been criticised from both sides over the reforms. Unions say they're too drastic and will hurt the poorer members of society, while analysts say they don't go far enough. Among those critics is Tomas Sedlacek, who was an advisor to former president Vaclav Havel. He says the spending cuts are simply too little, too late:

"The Social Democratic Party won the elections because they were introduced as a pro-reform government. From what I know from political theory, you're supposed to do the hard reform steps in the first two years of your governance, and in the remaining two you're supposed to do steps that will make the nation forget how hard it was in the beginning. Now they're doing the exact opposite."

But the government has to cut public spending if the Czech Republic is even to think of joining the euro in six or seven years' time. Shouldn't you be applauding the government for taking this brave step and slashing public spending?

"Well it's not a very brave step. Also, realise that a lot of the government income is still generated from privatisation, which will run dry very soon, and that's a very significant part of the government spending. We have to applaud the current government for making the budget more transparent, but that's simply not enough. These steps have to be made much stronger, not only because of the convergence criteria but mainly because it is not a healthy thing to a country indebted in such a measure."

This government seems to be permanently on the verge of collapse, on the brink of disaster. Do you think it will survive its full four-year term?

"Well it's a very weak government, and this country seems to have a legacy of very weak governments. We haven't really had a strong government since the times after the revolution. Nobody's really enthusiastic about these reforms that they're doing - they're really halfway reforms that could even be labelled as cosmetic."

It's the people themselves who will have to bear the brunt of these public spending cuts, so what do they think of them? I went out onto to the streets to find out:

"They're necessary. They're not necessarily good, but they're necessary. It's completely inevitable to do something like this. It's really something like a plan for the future."

The main justification for these cuts is adopting the euro in six or seven years' time. Is it worth it do you think?

"Well, we can't just remain an island within Central Europe. We have to be connected to the rest of Europe in order to survive, to be a partner of the European Union. I think it's worth it."

"No, I don't support the spending cuts, because I think the ordinary people will suffer. I think for example there should be a progressive tax, but not cuts."

Voices from the streets of Prague there, suggesting there's very little enthusiasm for these reforms. In fact a new poll released this week showed public approval ratings for the government falling from 72 percent - when it first came to power last year - to 27 percent. So it seems prime minister Vladimir Spidla still has to convince the Czech public that these spending cuts are truly essential for the economy.