Prague - The Czech government lost a parliamentary no-confidence vote midway through the country's EU presidency on Tuesday evening.
Four rebel Czech MPs voted together with the Social Democrats and the Communists against the centre-right three-party ruling coalition, which consists of the Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats and the Greens. Together they got 101 votes in the 200-seat house.
PM Mirek Topolánek (Civic Democrats) said after the vote he was ready to step down but Social Democrats (ČSSD) leader Jiří Paroubek had said before the vote that "ČSSD is willing to tolerate the government for a few more weeks."
Interestingly, it was MPs from its own rank that said no to Topolánek's government - former Green members Olga Zubová and Věra Jakubková and Civic Democrat Vlastimil Tlustý and former Civic Democrat Jan Schwippel.
Blame the bickering
Czech president Václav Klaus declined to comment on the vote. "Mr. President has it that it would be preliminary and unwise to comment on the situation in the lower house at the moment," said his spokesperson Radim Ochvat.
The opposition has mainly blamed the government for its failure to lead the country out of the economic crisis. However, in the eastern European context the Czech Republic has seen a smaller impact of the global economic downturn than its neighbors.
European media have accredited today's loss of no-confidence vote to the internal political bickering. Topolánek's government has been weak since its existence in 2007, lacking support of the majority of votes in the lower house.
No quick fix
It will be up to president Václav Klaus to appoint another leader to form a new government.
Usually it is the leader of the winning party, which based on the 2006 ballot is Mirek Topolánek's party at the moment.
"I expect Mr. President to appoint me again to form the new cabinet," said Topolánek after the vote.
But Jiří Paroubek holds a different view: "I assume Mr. President will act in line with the constitution and will launch negotiations with the party leaders," Paroubek told a press conference held after the vote.
Given the almost equal split in the lower house, it will be a hard task for anyone to form the new cabinet. One things remains certain for the Greens' leader Martin Bursík.
"Any other government will be less pro-eco, less pro-European," Bursík said following the collapse of the ruling coalition.
The European Commission officials said Tuesday evening that it was confident that the Czech government would effectively preside over the EU Presidency.
"The Commission has full trust that the national constitutional law allows for the Czech Republic to continue conducting the Council Presidency as effectively as it has done until now," said Brussels in its statement.
