CZECH PRIME minister Mirek Topolánek is considering stepping down as his party's leader after it suffered a second successive disastrous weekend at the polls, writes Daniel McLaughlin
The ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) are floundering just as the Czech Republic prepares to take over the European Union's rotating presidency in January, and decides whether to adopt the bloc's beleaguered Lisbon Treaty and to ratify a deal to host a controversial US radar base.
After losing control of 13 of 14 Czech regions in local elections last weekend, the ODS won only three seats in the senate, the country's upper house of parliament, in voting on Friday and Saturday. Their main centre-left rivals, the Civic Democrats, picked up 23 seats. In midweek, the government narrowly survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote.
"This means for me personally that I will have to decide whether to run and defend my seat of ODS chairman," said Mr Topolánek.
The Social Democrats leader Jiri Paroubek hailed a "glittering . . . epochal" victory, and urged the cabinet to resign. He wants a "government of experts" to run the Czech Republic for the first half of next year, followed by early elections when the period of the EU presidency is over.
If Czech courts deem the Lisbon Treaty in line with the country's constitution, it would almost certainly now have an easier passage through the Senate, where the Social Democrats have been much stronger supporters of the document than the ODS.