PM Topolánek: government on verge of collapse

Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek told the daily Mlada fronta Dnes on Saturday that his coalition government was on the verge of collapse. Mr Topolánek said that if the current coalition, consisting of the Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats and the Greens, does not undergo “a catharsis” over the summer, the government might fall.

Several MPs in each of the coalition parties have repeatedly voted against drafts prepared by the government. While rebels within the right-wing Civic Democrats object to way the restitution of church property was calculated, some Christian Democrats and Greens oppose the government’s health care reform as well as the planned Czech-American treaty on siting a U.S. tracking radar base on Czech territory.