Czech PM blames smears for poll defeat

CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech prime minister Jiri Paroubek has grudgingly accepted election defeat, blaming it on a smear campaign that accused him of molesting the teenage daughter of a friend and having links with the Prague mafia.

The centre-right Civic Democrats ended the eight-year rule of Mr Paroubek's Social Democrats after the most vitriolic election battle in recent Czech history, and by a margin so narrow that it will struggle to push reform plans through parliament.

"The Civic Democrats won the elections," Mr Paroubek said yesterday, after the opposition took 81 of the 200 seats in parliament, seven more than the current leftist government.

"But I have a problem congratulating them for that victory," Mr Paroubek added, "because I don't think it was achieved by fair means in the last week."

The final days of campaigning were dominated by leaks from a report by Jan Kubice, the head of the organised crime squad, which accused the government of blocking investigations into underworld figures and suggested that Mr Paroubek had sexually abused the young daughter of an associate.

An outraged Mr Paroubek said he would sue Mr Kubice as well as Mirek Topolanek, the leader of the Civic Democrats, who claimed in a live televised debate that he had ties to the Prague mafia.

Mr Paroubek accused parts of the media and security services of conspiring against him by making false accusations that played into the hands of the Civic Democrats, who promised to root out corruption as well as overhaul the tax system and welfare state.

After the end of voting on Saturday, Mr Paroubek threatened to challenge the result in court and compared his opponents' tactics to those of the pre-1989 communist regime. Yesterday however he said he would lead the opposition in parliament, where the left and right-wing blocs both now have 100 seats, making coalition-forming difficult and political deadlock a possibility.

Mr Topolanek said all options were open except an alliance with the Communists, who came third with 26 seats, fewer than they won at the last election.

His most likely partners are the Christian Democrats, who won 13 seats and the Greens who took six. Mr Topolanek refused to rule out even a "grand coalition" with the outgoing government.

"Over the coming days, we will seek to talk to partners and I do not even exclude the Social Democrats from the negotiations," he said.

Some commentators said the political stalemate might force Mr Paroubek to forge a coalition with the Social Democrats and scale back his plans to introduce a 15 per cent flat tax and slash bureaucracy and state spending.

Others however said the mudslinging between the main parties may preclude a power-sharing deal now.

"The election campaign was extremely nasty," said analyst Jiri Pehe. "Politicians have dug trenches between themselves that are so deep it will be difficult to cross them now."

A history of deadlock: elections since 1993

1996 - A right-wing coalition won 99 votes in the 200-seat lower house but managed to form a minority government because of deep divisions on the left, which won a combined 101 seats. The cabinet collapsed a year later, prompting early elections.

1998 - The early polls gave 102 seats to centre-right parties but acrimonious relations between the conservative Civic Democrats (ODS) and the liberal Freedom Union prevented the two parties from forming a government. This allowed the Social Democrats to grab power with the tacit backing of the Civic Democrats in return for various posts.

2002 - The Social Democrats and the Communists won 111 seats between them but the Social Democrats refused to co-operate with the former totalitarian rulers. The Social Democrats managed to form a coalition with the centrist Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union, commanding a wafer-thin majority of 101 seats. It was often dysfunctional and saw two Social Democrat prime ministers, Vladimir Spidla and Stanislav Gross, removed in reshuffles.

2006 - A centre-right bloc of the Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats and the Greens won 100 seats, the same as the combined force of the Social Democrats and the Communists. Analysts expect either a "grand coalition" of the conservatives and Social Democrats or early polls.