After seven months of deadlock in Parliament that saw failed votes, bitter feuds and a country growing more disillusioned by the day, the Czech Republic finally has a new government. But will it be able to accomplish anything?

That's the question analysts and political observers are batting around this week, as Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, fresh from winning a narrow vote of confidence for his coalition Cabinet in the Chamber of Deputies, begins to outline an aggressive program of reforms.

There is plenty in the offing. The coming months could see changes to the Criminal Code, a renewed effort to push through anti-discrimination and anti-smoking legislation and — most important to the prime minister's coalition government — a host of economic reforms, including overhauls of the country's pension and tax systems.

But the country has been slow to warm to the ruling coalition that includes Topolánek's Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the Christian Democratic Union (KDU-ČSL) and the Green Party (SZ). Recent polls show that three in five Czechs do not like this lineup and close to half the country wants an early election this year.

"This government does not have it easy," political analyst Bohumil Doležel says. "Everyone is against this new government; everyone is condemning it. ... I wouldn't condemn it too easily. I would give it a chance and see what it does next."

Deputies Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka are credited with tipping Jan. 19's confidence vote in Topolánek's favor when they defected from the Social Democrats (ČSSD) and did not attend the vote.

That gave the ODS coalition the margin it needed to win a majority of support in the 200-seat Chamber. All 100 coalition deputies voted in favor of the Cabinet, while 97 ČSSD deputies voted against it.

The two men suddenly took on celebrity status, besieged by media camped outside the Chamber during a daylong session of debate leading up to the vote.

"I decided to support this government when all ČSSD attempts to tolerate or to form a government with the ODS failed," Melčák told reporters. "I wanted this after-election agony to be finished."

Perhaps not surprisingly, ČSSD Chairman Jiří Paroubek sharply criticized the men, accusing them of hitting the party with a cheap shot. He now vows to propose legislation that would outlaw future political defections.

"I would compare this situation of betrayal with boxing," Paroubek said. "When one boxer hits another below his belt, he is disqualified.

"Unfortunately, no such disqualification is possible in politics."

With the Social Democrats reeling, attention now turns to the two small parties that are buttressing Topolánek's coalition: The SZ and the KDU-ČSL.

What of the Greens?

The SZ is perhaps the biggest question mark.

Before last year, the party had never held a seat in Parliament. Now it finds itself part of the government, a party with a very specific platform that will have to find ways to make compromises.

"The Greens are the weakest party in Parliament, but it's often the position of the small parties that can very often have influence," says Vladimíra Dvořáková, a political science lecturer at Charles University. "It can strengthen that position by putting some of its priorities into the government's program."

SZ deputies now hold key education and human rights positions, which could benefit debate over school entrance exams and Romany rights, analysts say.

But other SZ positions could prove more tricky for the government. The SZ is bullish on nuclear energy, and pro-Europe, whereas the ODS has looked away from the European Union in recent years.

And the SZ, like other Green parties across Europe, tends to be pacifist and guarded in its opinion of the United States, a position that could complicate the government's debate on whether to grant the United States' recent request to build a radar system in the Czech Republic.

Paroubek's next move

This and other debates will now occur, in theory at least, beyond the influence of Paroubek, who has cast the longest shadow in Czech politics these past seven months.

But don't look for the former prime minister to step down from politics, analysts say. Already he is lobbying to be chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, and he is unlikely to face opposition when the ČSSD soon convenes for its party congress.

"He has the support of his party," says Dvořáková.

But she adds that the ČSSD will need to reinvent itself and find a way to exist as an opposition party without relying too heavily on the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, the only other parliamentary party not in the coalition.

Doležel sees a more fundamental challenge, not just for the ČSSD but for Topolánek's government: undoing the damage wrought by months of political infighting.

"This agony undermined people's trust in constitutional institutions," Doležel says. "The fact that there was no government for seven months caused damages that will not be insignificant. It will come to light later on."

Naďa Černá and Hela Balínová contributed to this report.