The government debate over next year's state budget has turned into a battle over wages. The news that police officers can expect a significant pay rise next year has set off an avalanche of protests from teachers, doctors and nurses who are all demanding their share of the pie, reminding the Prime Minister of broken promises.
The Cabinet's decision to reduce the state budget deficit by ten billion crowns -made at the last minute at the insistence of the two smaller parties in the coalition government - has put the Prime Minister in an unenviable position. The need to save ten billion crowns means that he will have to go back on promises the Social Democrats made at a time when their popularity ratings were in a slump. The admission that there simply is not enough in state coffers for everyone is hard to make just before the November senate and regional elections. Moreover, the government has made things worse by making selective promises, as political analyst Vladimira Dvorakova explains:
"They decided that they would promise them something and they made promises to only some state employees - to police officers and also teachers, but less than they expected, and now there are other state employees asking for more and more because they had all been expecting a salary increase for some time now. It was like opening Pandora's box and now it is clear that there will not be enough money to go round."
The rumblings of discontent are hard to ignore and some employees are threatening strike action if their demands are not met. The Cabinet agreed to a last-minute meeting with trade unions on Tuesday, before the final debate on the budget was due to start. "We will hear them out, but they should not expect miracles" the Prime Minister said, ahead of the talks. Paradoxically, the governing Christian Democrats share the views of trade union leaders in that the available funds should be more fairly divided among different professions rather that giving some a steep raise and others nothing. This is an indication of the degree of controversy within the coalition government itself over this issue - and political analysts predict that no matter how Cabinet patches up this unfortunate situation - it will have a far-reaching impact, in particular on the Social Democrats who are already divided over the wisdom of betraying their election promises in order to meet the smaller parties' demand for a reduced budget deficit. Those in favour of the deal argue that without it the Social Democrats would be out of the hot seat. Those opposed to it say that the party is trading its future for the price of two years in government.
