Czech News Daily

KDU-ČSL Chairman Jiří Čunek today announced that he won’t be submitting names for cabinet positions to Prime Minister Jan Fischer. He also proposed a means of dealing with the current economic crisis by cutting electricity prices. Details of the measures will be discussed with Jan Fischer on Tuesday. Current government legislation however doesn’t give any provision for influencing the price of energy.

With regards to the assembly of a new cabinet, Čunek underlined that the People’s Party (KDU-ČSL) won’t be nominating any of its members. Chairman of the Social Democrats Jiří Paroubek said on Thursday however that the ODS Chairman Mirek Topolánek had come to Fischer with names for ministerial positions from the People’s Party.

It appears that KDU-ČSL is somewhat divided in opinion. Contrary to the official party position, Minister of Finance Miroslav Kalousek, together with a few other parliamentary deputies support a new administrative cabinet. “Our position is clear,” declared Čunek. “We will not be nominating anyone.”

The person most responsible for causing the current political crisis is according to an exclusive opinion poll by MEDIAN the Chairman of the ČSSD Party Jiří Paroubek. He’s also the person who stands to gain the most.

From the more than 400 people questioned, 44% think that Jiří Paroubek is to blame for the crisis, whilst 41% lay the blame on Mirek Topolánek. Only 10% of those questioned hold President Václav Klaus responsible.

It’s interesting that more men find Jiří Paroubek to blame for unleashing the current crisis, whilst amongst women fault for the fall of the government is equally divided between the ODS and ČSSD leaders.

It’s largely young people from Prague and Central Czech that blame Paroubek whilst in villages and smaller towns people see Topolánek being at fault for the current situation.

As for the question of who stands to gain the most from the political crisis roughly a third of all those questioned answered unequivocally Jiří Paroubek. This view was shared by both young and old, and inhabitants of both villages and large cities.

He’ll become Prime Minister today, even without support from leadership of the People’s party.  Awaiting him will be a ‘choice’ of ministers dictated to him by the political parties. ‘I might veto some names. And why not?’, said the Chairman of the Czech Office of Stastistics Jan Fischer in an interview with Lidové Noviny.

How do you respond to hearing that the leaders of the two most powerful parties ODS and ČSSD have told the President of the Republic that a decision has been reached, and that tomorrow at 2pm you will be named Prime Minister?

I released a statement about that and nothing has since changed so there’s nothing I can add. I can confirm of course that I accept the task. But at the moment there’s nothing further I can say. More information will follow today, but we are at the beginning in all of this. The statement says that we agreed with both leaders, ODS and ČSSD, that the negotiations for the forming of a new government will begin right after Easter. To say anything else right now would be  premature and speculative.

A couple of days ago you reacted sceptically to the question of becoming Prime Minister due to concerns about the party secretaries. The people’s party were against, but even so you will still be Prime Minister. What feelings do you have on this?

I don’t consider that important. I’ll just repeat that I’m prepared to accept the nomination for the title of new Prime Minister. And my task will be first of all to establish a new government. That’s really all I’m prepared to say. I don’t have anything to add.

I was asking about human emotions. You will be Prime Minister. Surely you myst feel something…

Of course, that feeling is huge, huge, huge, If you want human emotions then immense, gigantic, enormous. The work and the responsibilities which lie before me are huge. A huge amount of work will be necessary in the choosing of each cabinet members. To prepare a good team. To organise an agenda.. That is what I feel, the endless amount of work which I have before me…

I was asking however about your first reaction, when you found out that on Thursday you’ll go to the castle and the President will name you Prime Minister. Surely you didn’t just say to yourself well yeah, that’ll be a lot of work…

That’s exactly what I said to myself. That’s when I realised that the work is already on its way, that it’s actually true and that right after Easter that the negotiations will actually start. One of those human emotions was that I will have to carefully hand over the Czech Office of Statistics so that the institution, which employs 1600 people, can continue to function well. These are practical things. Another thing is that you loose some of your privacy. Definitely. That also means something. For your family. That you have to organise your life in a different way. In a way that will allow you some time for basic privacy. Probably not. But I take that into account. It will be very different to anything I’ve done so far. I’ve watched from the sidelines, but I’ve never been directly involved. I am however optimistic.

Presiding over the government which should steer the Czech Republic towards snap elections in the autumn will most likely be Chairman of the Czech Office of Statistics Jan Fischer.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek following negotiations between the three parties of the governing coalition and the social democrat opposition on Sunday evening.

‘We agreed that I will put the proposal for the name of the new Government Chairman to the President,’ informed Mirek Topolánek after the negotiations. ‘That name will be Jan Fischer’.

The three parties of the governing coalition signed a collective agreement that parliamentary snap elections should take place by 15th October at the latest. ‘The elections will most likely take place on the 9th and 10th of October.’

Mirek Topolánek stated that the Chairman of the Office of Statistics is s person who will reliably lead the Czech Republic towards elections. ‘He is a universally respected individual whom we all agreed on without a problem’, said the Prime Minister.

Topolánek’s words were also confirmed by ČSSD Chairman Jiří Paroubek who further specified that the new government won’t be comprised of any current ministers.

‘The new cabinet will consist of cross-party experts which each of the parties will propose to Mr Fisher,’ advised Paroubek.

Jan Fischer was born in Prague in 1951. After the foundation of the Czech Republic as an autonomous state he was from the year 1993 Vice Chairman of the Czech Office of Statistics and from the beginning of the 1990’s headed the teams processing the results of parliamentary and community elections.

He was named Chairman of the Office of Statistics by President Klaus in April 2003. He’s a member of several prestigious institutions including the Czech Statistics Society and the International Institute of Statistics.

Last week’s political tremors in the Czech Republic increased concerns in some parts of the EU that the new member states are simply not capable of responsibly leading such a large and elite club. We spoke to Czech foreign minister Karl Schwarzenberg about this and about what the EU Presidency could do following the fall of the government.

Did you get calls from your European colleagues at the instant the government fell, wanting to know what was happening here?
Nothing exceptional. It cheered me up that the first person to call me was the Polish foreign minister Sikorski. He had an idea of how I might be feeling and wanted me so know that he was prepared to help in any way he could.

Has this altered your agenda at all in the coming weeks? Will you have to defer some of your plans?
Everything is running on as normal for the moment. It’s like with death. We don’t know the day or the hour. The vote of no-confidence has been declared, the Prime Minister has been to the castle, but as yet we don’t know who will be entrusted with the forming of a new government. It’s necessary to note here, that the social democrats and Paroubek wanted Topolánek’s head, but didn’t want to assume responsibility during the time of crisis. They want to come to power once the situation has improved. That’s why they’re talking about holding elections in February or later. The surprise of ČSSD when they succeeded in the vote of no-confidence against the government, was evident. Of course, the ongoing task of the opposition is to try to overthrow the government and to strive for power, but it’s irresponsible to overthrow the government during the EU Presidency, - to attempt to disgrace the government and then maintain: I’m not going to take your place. That is what really upset me, not the fact that I’ll no longer be minister. Whether it’s myself or someone else there doesn’t matter to me.

Will this weaken our position in Europe?
Truly speaking we still don’t know. It doesn’t necessarily have to harm us. The program of the EU Presidency is clear. Our task is to facilitate discussion, and that’s possible even in our current state of demise. The problem could be if Europeans were to loose confidence in us.

Is this the end of the American Radar project?
I don’t know. The Americans will in my opinion want it to continue. They’re negotiating with Iran at the moment, but we all know that Iran isn’t the only threat. We don’t know what will happen in Pakistan, or what could happen in China. So the anti-missile defence system may one day be advantageous.  With regards to support at home its not possible to judge whether it will happen.

And what about the problems with the Lisbon Treaty?
We have to wait for nerves to settle. I don’t know if the ODS hard-liners, who have backing in the Senate, and were the only real obstacle for Vondra and Topolánek, will agree to help. I don’t know all of the Senators, but I fear that it won’t be straightforward.

What could it mean for us if the Treaty wasn’t ratified?
We could become isolated. We could be cast out because Ireland will definitely ratify the Treaty the second time around.  It’s necessary to realise that we’re not an island, but that we lie between Germany, Austria and other EU states. So in that case, God help us, we could to a certain extent find ourselves deprived of our voice.

New governments with regards to foreign policy have more or less concurred so far with previous governments. Now for the first time experts fear that we’re reaching a turning point in foreign policy arising from the unprecedented voting from ČSSD against the mission in Afghanistan. Do you share this view?
I fear that the decline in the sense of responsibility for the fate of the nation is too strong. I’ll repeat that it doesn’t matter to me if I stay in the government or not. But to overthrow the government and not want to take their place is irresponsible. If this kind of irresponsibility is going to spread (and it looks that way) and if populism is going to spread further, then I’m concerned for foreign policy.

Would you accept a position in an administrative government?
Naturally it’s important who would be at the head of government. But fundamentally, it’s about whether or not I would really be able to function as foreign minister. You see I’ve known Vondra for years and all the same we’ve clashed a few times. But we know how to reach an agreement and we manage to do that. If however there was someone else in his place, someone who didn’t know how to negotiate, then I wouldn’t wish that. It is however only a hypothetical question because the moment this government finishes the greens will become irrelevant for other parties because other forces will be vying for power. And the foreign minister has that advantage that apart from the Prime Minister, he’s the one most seen on television. It’s evident how he meets with various personalities, politicians, presenters etc, and that entices every ambitious politician. So the question of me participating in another government I perceive to be completely unrealistic. It’s probably like asking me whether I’m going to set off and conquer Mount Everest.

Source: Respekt 14/2009

The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) has posted another video on YouTube which likens the fall of Mirek Topolánek’s government to the most tragic events in the history of the Czech Republic - the Munich Accord, February 1948  and the Soviet occupation in 1968.

The ODS Video begins with famous scenes from 1938,  the forced evacuation of the Sudetenland, February 1948, the forced collectivisation of agriculture under communism and tanks rolling into Prague.

‘The Czech state has been betrayed and overthrown many times due to the unfulfilled ambitions of a particular few. The vote of no-confidence is such an act of betrayal, at the time when the Czech nation stands at the head of Europe’ , says the narrator, accompanied by emotive music.

Actor and Senator Tomáš Töpfer (ODS) talks about how many Czech’s have such a short memory of history in which such a small county has failed to be taken seriously and betrayed. ’Czech’s have to remember that our biggest danger is that of being all alone’, he finishes.

Source Article: Lidové Noviny

President Václav Klaus doesn’t want a government in demise to run the country for long, just until the end of the EU Czech Presidency or until early elections can be called.

After a meeting with departing Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek he stated that the new government must be founded on fundamental political agreement from Parliament. ‘Whoever is able to gather the support of 101 signatories from the lower house, I’ll give them the opportunity to establish a government,’ said Klaus.

Klaus’s 3 Principles:

1. The solution must be quick - the current economic crisis and our European Presidency require a competent and fully working government.

2. I won’t accept half measures - that is to remain in the current state of uncertainty about which there has been speculation.

3. I’m prepared only to name a government which will be founded on political agreement from the Chamber of Deputies (lower house). - For me personally, and for the Czech public, the establishment of a government through defection doesn’t come into the equation. The way in which the last government came about is what let us to the situation today.

ČSSD Chairman Jiří Paroubek reacted to the President’s recommendations regarding the founding of a new government by saying that he won’t be trying to obtain 101 signatures from parliament. ‘It will be very difficult for anyone to try to fulfil the President’s conditions,’ he said.