Social Democrats to lead coalition with Christian Democrats, Freedom Union

The Social Democrats have agreed on the forming of a new government with the two parties in the Coalition grouping, the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union. After talks on Wednesday night, the leader of the Christian Democrats, Cyril Svoboda, said that negotiations on the division of ministries should be completed in the next few days. The Social Democrats, who are led by Prime Minister-to be Vladimir Spidla and came first in elections almost three weeks ago, are to have 10 cabinet seats; the other two parties will have six between them. The number of deputy chairs in the Chamber of Deputies will reflect the number of seats held by all five parties in the lower house. The Social Democrats will have the chairmanship and one deputy chair, the Civic Democrats two deputy chairs and the other parties, including the Communists, will have one each.