Prague - Lower house speaker Miroslava Nemcova has been nominated as the successor of Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas, who resigned earlier this week in response to an illegal spying scandal of his top aide, Jana Nagyova.
TOP 09, a coalition partner of the senior government Civic Democratic Party (ODS), said it would support Nemcova's candidacy, but asked the coalition to quickly find a new speaker of the Chamber of Deputies to replace Nemcova.
Nemcova admitted in an interview with Aktualne.cz that the ongoing investigation of the Jana Nagyova scandal may target some of the current ministers.
UPDATE: ODS nominates Nemcova as new prime minister
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"We must take (this possibility) into account, because we are still processing this information, it has been a week and we still don't know what is really happening. Police or prosecutors, who should make it more clear for us, haven't told us anything that would make sense. We still don't know whose money was seized, it is still mixed up with the three lawmakers (Tluchor, Snajdr, Fuksa), with Ms Nagyova and with the military intelligence service. But nobody knows what is happening, why are Mr Rittig and Mr Janousek abroad. So we must take into account that this case may have further impact. If this is the case, the minister in question will have to quit."
The reputation of the ODS was drastically damaged by the scandal and ongoing high-profile police investigation.
Voter support for the ODS is at the lowest in the party's 22-year history, at eight percent, according to an opinion poll conducted by the PPM Factum agency. Even in 1998, when the party was hit by an illegal funding scandal, its voter support was at nine percent.
The same poll said that the opposition Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) would win the election with 78 seats in the 200-member Chamber of Deputies, followed by the Communist Party (KSCM) with 41 seats, TOP 09 with 37 seats, the ODS with 18 seats and the Christian-Democratic Party (KDU-CSL) with 15 seats and President Milos Zeman's SPOZ with 11 seats.
