ČSSD wants early elections this fall

Prague, Jan 18 (CTK) - The Czech opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) would like to initiate early general elections over the government reforms to be held this autumn together with the regional and Senate polls, CSSD head Bohuslav Sobotka said in the Senate yesterday when presenting an anti-government petition.

The CSSD's petition entitled "Against an unjust pension reform and for the departure of Petr Necas's government" has been signed by 90,782 citizens.

"We, the Social Democrats we will use all possibilities to cut the mandate of Necas's government," Sobotka said.

He added that he could see a chance in the government parties' squabbles destabilising the coalition.

The centre-right government coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), TOP 09 and Public Affairs (VV) has a comfortable majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament.

The regular general election is due in 2014.

The CSSD has filed a complaint against the government reforms with a Constitutional Court.

It argues that the reform bills were not passed in the Chamber of Deputies in compliance with the constitutional order as the government coalition pushed through the proposal that the reforms be debated as one whole and not divided into individual bills. Moreover, deputies' speeches during the session were limited to ten minutes, while each deputy could speak maximally twice on the same issue.

Sobotka also said the CSSD would soon submit an amendment that would apply lower VAT rate to books, papers and magazines and aids for the disabled again.

The CSSD launched the petition on November 1, 2011 and it symbolically ended it on November 17, Day of the Fight for Freedom and Democracy marking the beginning of the Velvet Revolution that brought down the communist regime.

The petition, along with obstructions in the the Chamber of Deputies, was a part of the CSSD's resistance to the reforms.

The Senate, the upper house of parliament, will debate the petition at a public hearing and at its regular session "in the weeks to come," Senate chairman Milan Stech (CSSD) said.