Czech govt falls in middle of EU Presidency

[RedRalph]

From BBC

The Czech Republic's centre-right minority government has lost a vote of confidence in parliament midway through the country's six-month EU presidency.

The result came after a group of four rebel MPs voted with the opposition Social Democrats and Communists against Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.

Together they garnered 101 votes in the 200-seat chamber, the minimum required.

Mr Topolanek said he would step down, but correspondents say it is unclear how long he will remain in the post.

Social Democrat leader Jiri Paroubek said ahead of the vote that the government could "complete the Czech EU presidency or its substantial part".

However, Mr Topolanek has ruled out the idea of a caretaker government until June, when the EU presidency passes to Sweden.

According to the constitution, Czech President Vaclav Klaus must decide who to choose to form a new administration. If three attempts to do so fail, early elections will be called.

'Surprise result'

Tuesday's confidence vote in the lower house followed accusations that one of Mr Topolanek's advisers had attempted to pressure state TV into dropping a programme critical of a former Social Democratic MP who had decided to back the coalition.

The government got what it deserved

Jiri Paroubek
Social Democrat leader

It was passed by a majority of one vote after four former members of Mr Topolanek's minority coalition, who had become independents, sided with the opposition.

"The government got what it deserved," Mr Paroubek said afterwards.

The BBC's Rob Cameron in Prague says this surprise result, which threw observers completely off guard, could have far-reaching consequences beyond the country's borders.

In addition to chairing the European Council, the Czech Republic is also in the middle of ratifying the Lisbon Treaty and is in talks with the United States on placing a radar base on Czech soil.

All these important foreign policy initiatives are now thrown into doubt, our correspondent adds.

After losing the vote, Mr Topolanek said he believed the country's position in Europe would inevitably be weakened.

"I believe it can complicate our negotiating power... partners in Europe have grown used to us negotiating hard," he told reporters.

Interesting, what was thre big bone of contention?

 

[kronic]

Kind of fits quite well in the general display of the world's leaders.

 

[Winner]

From BBC

Interesting, what was thre big bone of contention?

Paroubek's ego. That man has refused all attempts by the coalition to declare a "cease fire" during the Czech EU presidency, he refused to cooperate on unified approach to the financial crisis too. The opposition has not been constructive for one moment during the past 3 years.

That said, the coalition was unstable from the very beginning, it should have never be formed. I wonder what they were thinking knowing that they had 100 votes in 200-seat chamber of deputies; I can only guess they were too afraid to have early elections right after the regular general elections, which ended in stalemate.

 

[Alpine Trooper]

I would've prorogued Parliament before the vote.

 

[Camikaze]

I would've prorogued Parliament before the vote.

A sure fire way of getting the population on side.

 

[Winner]

I would've prorogued Parliament before the vote.

Too bad we're not some Banana republic - I'd love to see the opposition leaders rounded up and executed for treason

They undermine this country in the middle of its EU presidency, they undermine it when it is about to deal with the economic crisis, they undermine it when we're about to meet the new US president.

As far as I am concerneded, these egoistic reckless idiots are totally unfit to lead anybody else but a bunch of thugs. It's a sad display of our political "culture", nothing else.

Anyway, nothing changes for the next few months. The gov. continues to rule, albeit its position has been weakened. It has already suffered the worse, so the ministers can now ignore the independent members of parliament and the oposition and focus on their jobs, until the president asks somebody else to form a new government.

I hope we get early elections ASAP after the EU presidency, because this farce needs to stop. I've had enough of political bickering in the last 3 years.

 

[Yoda Power]

The Czech politicians should have waited untill the EU presidency was over. This is really unprofessionel. We need a strong leader right now, not one who have no power to back up his words.

 

[REDY]

I quite agree with Winner. Government hadnt my sympathy and I quite agree with critics, especcialy on health service reform, but fall of government shows irresponsibility of our opposition.

 

[Winner]

The Czech politicians should have waited untill the EU presidency was over. This is really unprofessionel. We need a strong leader right now, not one who have no power to back up his words.

Fortunately, the EU presidency is more about bringing other countries together, being a mediator and an administrator. Domestic troubles have no serious impact on that, it's more a psychological thing. IIRC, Denmark also had this happen to it durings it's EU presidency in early 1990s and the presidency was successful despite of that.

On a side note, I blame out voting system - it hasn't been able to produce a stable government since 1998.

 

[Yoda Power]

Fortunately, the EU presidency is more about bringing other countries together, being a mediator and an administrator. Domestic troubles have no serious impact on that, it's more a psychological thing. IIRC, Denmark also had this happen to it durings it's EU presidency in early 1990s and the presidency was successful despite of that.

I thought about that too, but to be fair, those were simpler times with only 12 countries and no financial crisis.

We'll probably see how serious the impact is in the within the next weeks.

 

[Winner]

IHT article about this:

Czech leader loses vote of confidence

By Dan Bilefsky
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

PRAGUE: The Czech government lost a parliamentary vote of no confidence Tuesday, suffering an embarrassing defeat midway through its presidency of the European Union and casting doubt on the country's ability to shepherd the world's biggest trading bloc during a time of economic crisis.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said Tuesday that he would resign after the motion passed, 101-96, in the 200-seat lower house. Three lawmakers were absent.

Analysts said that under the Czech Constitution the vote would not lead immediately to early elections and Mr. Topolanek and his top ministers could stay on for months until President Vaclav Klaus appoints a new prime minister who can gain the support of a majority in Parliament. But they said the vote meant the E.U. presidency would now be held by a country in which the Parliament does not have faith in the government.

"This is a humiliation for the government that will now be hijacked by internal political infighting," said Tomas Sedlacek, a leading economist who was an adviser to former President Vaclav Havel. "What kind of respect can the president of the E.U. have in the eyes of the world when it is led by someone who is politically dead, who is a political zombie?"

American officials said the vote of no confidence had been watched closely in Washington. It comes less than two weeks before President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Prague for a summit meeting aimed at forging closer trans-Atlantic relations.

Analysts said the collapse of the government would take the shine off a visit in which Mr. Topolanek, a young telegenic prime minister [What?! - Winner], was meant to greet Mr. Obama, a young telegenic president, and show that the United States and the E.U. were united to save the global economy.

Mr. Topolanek acknowledged that the Czech presidency of the E.U. had been weakened.

"I believe it can complicate our negotiating power. Partners in Europe have grown used to us negotiating hard. In this sense it can happen that our position will be weakened," he said, adding that he was in favor of new elections this summer if no new government was formed.

Jiri Paroubek, the Social Democratic leader who called the no-confidence vote, said he wanted the cabinet to stay on until June to avoid disrupting the team running the E.U. presidency. He said a government of nonpartisan experts could then take over and lead the country toward an early election in the autumn or next spring. Regular elections are due in mid-2010.

Even if the cabinet remains, analysts said the collapse of the government would undermine key foreign policy aims of the current Czech government, including plans to build a U.S. missile defense radar system in the country, which is already under review by Washington. Earlier this month, the Czech government temporarily withdrew treaties on building the system from the parliamentary ratification agenda in the face of an opposition threat to vote them down.

The vote also casts new doubt on the future of the E.U.'s Lisbon Treaty, which is meant to streamline decision-making in the bloc and help it to play a larger role internationally. The treaty, which was rejected in a referendum in Ireland last year, is supported by the Czech government but has yet to be ratified in the upper house of Parliament. The lack of a government could push the Lisbon Treaty down the agenda.

Karel Schwarzenberg, the Czech foreign minister, sought to play down the significance of the vote, saying the opposition's attempts to score political points would backfire.

"Paroubek is convinced that attacking the whole time is the best tactic and that will help him win elections," he said in an interview ahead of the vote. "But the Czech people don't like it and would prefer that we have a cease-fire when we have the presidency of the E.U."

He emphasized that even with the no-confidence vote, under the Czech Constitution, the prime minister and his top ministers could stay on until after the Czech's presidency of the E.U. ends in June.

"Our work as president of the E.U. will go on anyway," he said. "Our European partners will see at the next E.U. conference that we are all there."

Analysts noted that while the Czech vote had been spurred by political infighting rather than economic turmoil, it would nevertheless have the effect of undermining the Czech economy at a critical time.

Political observers said the one of the greatest beneficiaries of the crisis could prove to be Mr. Klaus, an outspoken economic liberal, who is skeptical of the E.U. While he founded the Civic Democratic party of Mr. Topolanek, in recent months he has criticized the prime minister for being too fervent an advocate of greater E.U. integration and recently resigned as honorary chairman of the party.

Under the Czech Constitution, he has the power to choose a new prime minister, making him the new kingmaker in Czech politics.

"Klaus is the big star when the government fails," said Adam Cerny, a commentator for Hospodarske Noviny, a Czech newspaper. "With Topolanek as a lame-duck prime minister, he and his controversial views will once again be back in the spotlight."

Klaus said in late October that the Czech presidency would be "insignificant" since Europe was controlled by France, Germany, Italy and Britain. Czech politicians, he warned, should not think they could change anything.

I am more and more convinced, that Paroubek did this only to undermine Topolanek's recovering popularity, related to the EU presidency, proactive crisis managment and generally more positive stories about him in the media. I guess this was a sort of "pre-emptive strike".

Of course he will hurt the whole country, but what's that compared to his ego?

Such an idiot, Gods...

 

[kronic]

How likely is it that the Lisbon treaty will now pass? There were articles in the German press saying that it could now fail in the Senate as it's unclear how much authority the ODS leadership now has left. It's said that many ODS senators are not exactly very pro-EU.

Who decides over early elections? The later you get to vote, the more likely the Social Democrats win as the recession only has begun to feed through to the labour market, the budget situation etc.

 

[Sharwood]

I have no idea what opinion to have on this subject, but am very interested in how this plays out. Subscription post.

 

[Winner]

How likely is it that the Lisbon treaty will now pass? There were articles in the German press saying that it could now fail in the Senate as it's unclear how much authority the ODS leadership now has left. It's said that many ODS senators are not exactly very pro-EU.

That's correct. They wanted to trade Lisbon treaty for treaty about the US missile defence. Since the latter is now "on hold", I don't think they'll rush to ratify the Lisbon treaty.

Frankly, they were pressured to have a vote about it because a successful ratification could help to strengthen Czech negotiating position in the EU. But since it can't get any worse now, they'd probably not vote about it anytime soon.

Who decides over early elections?

Nobody. If three attempts to form a new government fail, the president dissolves the chamber of deputies and declares early elections, IIRC.

Otherwise, we lack any mechanism to hurry early elections. You need 120 votes (out of 200) to make a constitutional law shortening the electoral term; this way was used in 1998, but it's a last resort.

The later you get to vote, the more likely the Social Democrats win as the recession only has begun to feed through to the labour market, the budget situation etc.

I don't think so. The socialists are now actually losing support, which peaked during the government's attempts to reform the healthcare system. This is why Topolanek wants early elections in summer, I guess.

Their anti-crisis proposals turned out to be nothing but utter nonsense, that would massively increase our national debt and solve nothing. I imagine that embarrasing us in the eyes of the rest of Europe won't help them much either.

 

[Winner]

I have no idea what opinion to have on this subject, but am very interested in how this plays out. Subscription post.

I wonder what could possibly interest you - you're Australian, right?

 

[Mirc]

At least it's more ethical than the (literally) left-right qualition we've got! (PSD => Socialist + PDL => Liberal qualition )

I'm with Sharwood on this one. Don't feel like I know enough yet to have an opinion, but very, very interested to see how it all plays out!

 

[Winner]

Here's the latest opinion poll I could find:

As you can see, ODS has been recovering for the past 2 months, while the oposition has been losing support. They would have won landslide victory if there were early elections in autumn 2008. Today, it would be just another stalemate

 

[holy king]

i dont see this affecting the eu's efficiency in any way.

 

[Sharwood]

I wonder what could possibly interest you - you're Australian, right?

The success or lack thereof of the EU affects my future plans considerably.

 

[Winner]

UPDATE

PM said yesterday that he believed that Klaus was behind his government's fall. This is going to be interesting

(it makes sense - Klaus has hated Topolánek for years and the EU for his whole life. By helping to undermine his fragile majority, Klaus probably seeks to get rid of Topolánek and delay/stop ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.)