Czech government to quit

[Dover]

Czech government to quit

PRAGUE : The Czech government headed by Social Democrat Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek will step down within the next 24 hours, his deputy Zdenek Skromach has said.

The move follows the election on Monday of an interim speaker for the lower house of the Czech parliament, which is split evenly between right and left coalitions, each with 100 seats, and had been deadlocked since June 27.

The choice of an interim parliamentary speaker, a little-known Social Democrat Miloslav Vlcek, cleared the way for Paroubek and his lame-duck government to resign.

Paroubek's resignation will make possible the appointment as his successor of Mirek Topolanek, whose right-wing Civic Democrat Party (ODS) topped the poll in the June 2 and 3 general election with 35 percent of the vote.

But the ODS did not win an outright majority.

Topolanek's task of forming a new government has been made more difficult by the failure of his initial plan to team up with the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Greens (SZ), forming a coalition with 100 seats in the 200-member parliament.

Cont'd..
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/225042/1/.html

[hippiechick]

1. Damn, now if we could get OUR whole gov't to QUIT!

:applause:

[Demeter]

2. Or Even Slow Down the Insanity For a While!

[Odin2005]

3. Vlcek? Try saying that 5 times fast!

[damntexdem]

4. Bounced Czechs?

;-)