Social Democrats set conditions for potential coalition partners

The Social Democratic Party, leading in the polls ahead of May’s national election, has set conditions for potential coalition partners, a number of them appearing to rule out the country’s right-wing parties. On Friday, Social Democrat chairman Jiří Paroubek said that his party would only be willing to enter a government that would abolish health care fees introduced by the former cabinet and would be willing to reintroduce progressive taxation instead of a flat tax rate. The conditions appear to rule out parties such as traditional rivals the Civic Democrats or the newest right-of-centre party TOP 09. In recent months it has been speculated that the Social and Civic Democrats could from a grand coalition in order to agree on reforming spending and taxes to lower the budget deficit. It is unclear how likely that scenario is now. The Civic Democrats trail the Social Democrats - a distant second place in most polls - although in recent weeks the right-of-centre party has narrowed the gap somewhat.