Parties debate interim gov't

Barack Obama and his legionary entourage were barely in the air when local politicians sat down to resolve an issue that unnerved them more than the U.S. presidential visit: the current government stalemate.

After more than a week of fruitless inter-partisan negotiations following the governing coalition's demise in a March 24 no-confidence vote, party leaders sought to restore order by proposing an interim government to lead the country to snap elections this fall.

Originally, the parties agreed on the appointment of a technocratic Cabinet headed by Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ) head Jan Fischer. A career statistician, Fischer said he will accept the post but has no ambitions to remain politically active after the parliamentary elections, set for early October.

However, the minority coalition Green and Christian Democratic parties rebuked the agreement by press time, demanding the current lame-duck government to steer the Czech EU presidency to its conclusion at the end of June.

In a rare consensus, both opposition Social Democratic Party head Jiří Paroubek and deposed Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek nevertheless maintained their support for an interim government. Topolánek made assurances that Fischer was an apt successor, touting his language skills and ability to navigate EU structures.

The support of the nation's two largest parties gives Fischer the required vote of confidence in Parliament. If chosen, he is slated to take over from Topolánek May 9.  

"[Fischer] is a completely politically colorless person, with no taste or odor," said political analyst Bohumil Doležal. "I'm concerned about how he will be able to face the inappropriate proposals of the political parties. Everyone is going to try pushing their agenda on him."

Some local observers view this transfer of power as catastrophic for the Czech role at the helm of the EU, which has been crippled by the current government's loss of mandate. "Nothing against Fischer, but once Topolánek introduces him to [French President] Nicolas Sarkozy and [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel, they will have a good laugh," daily Hospodářské noviny editorialized.

Reshuffling cabinets while holding the presidency is not unprecedented in the EU. During the 1990s, France weathered two such scenarios, said Piotr Maciej Kaczynski from the Centre for European Policy Studies, a Brussels-based think tank.

Denmark, which changed administrations at the beginning of its 1993 presidency, even bolstered its diplomatic role through the transition when its new leadership formulated the Copenhagen criteria for EU membership, an "important development at the time," Kaczynski said.

Although its mandate would be minuscule, the interim government would enjoy solid majority support in Parliament, endowing it with greater legitimacy than the current leadership. "The absence of a mandate can be taken up against [Topolánek] at any given moment," Kaczynski said. "We've seen limited presence by the Czech presidency since [the government collapse], even during Obama's visit to Prague."

For his part, Fischer has pledged to make the remainder of the Czech presidency as bump-free as possible.

His immediate charge would be appointing an all-new, 16-member team of ministers. Half of these - including the key posts of foreign affairs, European affairs and the interior - would be pre-selected by the opposition Social Democrats, giving the center-left party control over foreign policy and decisive sway over internal matters, Doležal said.

The remainder of the postings would be determined by the coalition Civic Democratic, Christian Democratic and Green parties.

The wary eyes of EU policymakers now turn to Euroskeptic President Václav Klaus, emergent as the strongest leader on the local political scene. "The presidency ends in less than two months," Doležal said. "[Klaus] is very active, but let's hope he won't have time to mess anything up."

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at
features@praguepost.com