TOP 09 says it will not join coalition with Social Democrats

Deputies’ club leader for TOP 09 Petr Gazdík has said that his party will not consider a coalition with the Social Democrats after early elections are held. He told journalists on Thursday that TOP 09 aimed to remain a reliable party on the centre-right. Mr Gazdík also charged that the Social Democrats were under full sway of the country’s president, Miloš Zeman, and he said his party would fight to defend the country’s parliamentary system, which some critics see as increasingly threatened by the president. On Wednesday, TOP 09 deputy leader Miroslav Kalousek argued that the president was trying to change the system to an autocratic one.