Czech Parliament Seeks Way Out of Deadlock

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/world/europe/czech-parliament-seeks-way-out-of-deadlock.html

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PARIS — The lower house of the Czech Parliament will vote next week on whether to dissolve itself and trigger early elections after the new caretaker government lost a vote of confidence, political party officials said Thursday.

The failure to endorse the new government in a confidence vote late Wednesday extended the political instability that has undermined the country since a corruption scandal led to the collapse of the previous government, led by Petr Necas, in June.

Last month, President Milos Zeman appointed a close ally, Jiri Rusnok, a leftist economist, as prime minister. The new government has shaken up the state administration, replacing 97 people at ministries and state companies, including the Czech railways, one of the state’s largest employers.

But the appointment of Mr. Rusnok set off a revolt by rightist parties previously aligned with Mr. Necas. Holding a parliamentary majority, they have accused Mr. Zeman of breaching democratic norms and demanded that their preferred candidate, Miroslava Nemcova, the speaker of Parliament, become prime minister.

Parliament has the power to dissolve itself, which would lead to early elections, and analysts said Thursday that a cross-party consensus appeared to be growing that this was the best way out of the crisis.

In the 200-seat lower house of Parliament, Mr. Rusnok lost the vote of confidence by 100 to 93. Seven members were not present during the vote.

Under the Constitution, Mr. Zeman has a second chance to appoint a prime minister. But he has no constitutional deadline to name a replacement before the next elections, scheduled for next spring, and the Rusnok government can stay on as caretaker.

Speaking before the confidence vote, Mr. Zeman said he would keep Mr. Rusnok in place for several weeks even if he lost, pending the conclusion of the corruption investigation that ensnared the previous government.

Analysts said the lack of consensus in Czech politics would invariably cripple policy making while also threatening to alienate foreign investors. Protracted disagreement between fiscally conservative parties and Mr. Rusnok, who favors higher taxes and spending, could also undermine the economy, which has been in a recession since 2011.

Critics have accused Mr. Zeman, the Czech Republic’s first popularly elected president, of seeking to orchestrate a power grab. Until Mr. Zeman’s election in January, the president was elected by Parliament.

Petr Fiala, a former minister of education who turned down a position in the current caretaker government, said it did not have the legitimacy to govern and would further undermine Czechs’ already shaky confidence in politics. “We are witnessing a repeated and deep crisis of the Czech political system,” he said. “People are highly unsatisfied with politics, and this has to change.”

Mr. Necas stepped down after the police arrested several people, including his former chief of staff and the current and former chiefs of military intelligence, in the most extensive anticorruption operation since the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

The former chief of staff, Jana Nagyova, whom Mr. Necas has since described as his girlfriend, denied any wrongdoing after being charged with abuse of power and bribery. Prosecutors said she ordered a military intelligence agency to spy on Mr. Necas’s wife; they divorced on Tuesday.

Ms. Nagyova was also accused of offering posts in state-owned companies to several rebellious lawmakers in return for their agreeing to leave Parliament.

<em>Hana de Goeij contributed reporting from Prague. </em>