Social Democrat leader confident MPs will not back coalition

Social Democrat leader Jiri Paroubek has expressed the conviction that none of his party's MPs will back the country's newly-appointed government in an upcoming confidence vote. In his view, even MP Milos Melcak, who has remained "undecided", will in the end choose not to back or tolerate the centre-right coalition. On Saturday Mr Melcak indicated he might abstain from voting. Prime Minister Topolanek's centre-right government needs support from at least one opposition MP in order to remain in power, and some Civic Democrats have speculated that as many as seven opposition MPs could back the government. But, such claims have been rejected by Jiri Paroubek and others. At the weekend Mr Paroubek recommended that if any of his party's MPs did break ranks during Friday's vote, they should leave the party or risk expulsion.