MfD: ODS rebels turn up pressure on PM

Prague, Oct 17 (CTK) - The six rebelling Civic Democrat (ODS) deputies have decided to put the blame for the ODS's "election Waterloo" on Petr Necas and subsequently have him unseated as ODS chairman and Czech prime minister, Tomas Syrovatka and Antonin Viktora write in daily Mlada fronta Dnes yesterday.

They react to the stepping up of political pressure by the rebels who threaten to sink the Necas cabinet unless their demands, allegedly in line with the ODS's programme, are met.

The internal rebellion has brought the senior ruling ODS to a deadlock and onto the verge of an abyss, Syrovatka and Viktora write.

The rebels, led by deputies Petr Tluchor and Marek Snajdr, have been planning Necas's elimination for a long time. While before the October 12-13 regional polls they criticised only some of Necas's steps, now they are newly challenging his government's policy as a whole, and also his performance at the ODS's helm, Syrovatka and Viktora write.

The critics say the hard core of ODS voters did not turn up at the polling stations last weekend in protest against the government's policy of tax increases, pension reform, church restitution and too soft changes to the health care system, all of which amounts to betrayal of the ODS's programme.

"The ODS always promoted a small effective state, low taxes and protection of privacy. We have been diverting from all this," ODS MP Boris Stastny said at the ODS deputies' group meeting on Tuesday, cited by Syrovatka and Viktora.

"After the ODS's historic debacle, the whole government policy must be revised...The ODS must change itself," Tluchor is quoted as saying.

The rebels have attacked everything Necas has done in his capacity as head of the cabinet and the ODS now that the Chamber of Deputies will soon vote on the 2013 budget bill and other crucial legislation such as the draft pension reform and the tax package, the fate of which depends on the rebels' support, Syrovatka and Viktora write.

The government has even linked the controversial tax package's fate to a confidence vote, they recall.

That is why Necas's allies in the ODS started persuading him, after the ODS's fresh election flop, to yield to the rebels to an extent. Necas then offered softening the tax package by raising only the lower VAT rate, not both rates as originally planned, and not raising taxes for people with high incomes, Syrovatka and Viktora write.

Allies recommend that Necas should make more concessions, which, however, he has refused to do for now. In his former capacity as ODS deputy head he saw repeated concessions oust Mirek Topolanek, his predecessor in the post of PM and ODS chairman, Syrovatka and Viktora write.

Necas's partial concession concerning the tax package, however, has been dismissed as "desperately insufficient" by the rebels, Syrovatka and Viktora say.

The situation in the ODS has become very tense. The rebels want to topple Necas as ODS chairman at the party's forthcoming election congress, Syrovatka and Viktora continue.

Some rebels indicate that they are ready to topple the government. One of their plans reportedly reckons with the fall of the cabinet, after which President Vaclav Klaus would assign the forming of a new cabinet to another ODS politician, for example Industry and Trade Minister Martin Kuba, who would form a government consisting of the present ruling parties, the ODS, TOP 09 and LIDEM, Syrovatka and Viktora write.

This scenario is quite risky for the ODS, however. Would Klaus really choose the next prime minister from the ODS? Would the new prime minister win a majority in the Chamber of Deputies? If not, early elections might follow, which the ODS does not wish, as it would probably suffer a defeat, Syrovatka and Viktora write.

The fear of early elections is the main trump of Necas and his allies. They believe that the rebels would not go that far and that both sides to the dispute will reach consensus in the end, Syrovatka and Viktora write.

In any case, a consensus is more remote now than it was before last weekend's elections, they add.