Czech politicians back in business
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After six weeks of talks and 15 months of political limbo, Czech politicians are finally back in the game. In Prague today the buzzwords - like in the rest of Europe - were "austerity" and "cuts" as the president appointed a new government drawn from a centre-right coalition.
Today's anouncement came after the three centre-right parties - Civic Democrats, conservative TOP09 and centrist Public Affairs party - concluded their horsetrading last night with a coalition statement that makes promises to balance the country's budget and fight corruption.
The deal brings an end to the Czech Republic's 14 months under a weak caretaker government, which took over after the former centre-right coalition collapsed in March 2009 - halfway through the country's EU presidency.
The new cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Petr Nečas, features some familiar Civic Democrat faces from the previous government along with new blood from its two junior coalition partners. It has still to be approved by parliament, but this is considered a formality as the coalition wields a comfortable majority in the lower house.
President Vaclav Klaus today noted that while times were tough, this strong parliamentary mandate should enable the new government to weather the difficult economic climate and start "much-needed reforms".
At the top of the agenda for the new ministers is the thankless task of drawing up an austerity budget for 2011, at the same time as beginning a major overhaul of the health and pension systems.
