Müllerová to be new social affairs minister

Prague, Oct 25 (CTK) - Karel Schwarzenberg, leader of the governing TOP 09, will propose to Prime Minister Petr Necas that he appoint former senator Ludmila Muellerova (TOP 09) to the post of Czech labour and social affairs minister, Schwarzenberg told journalists Thursday.

Schwarzenberg said it was his choice that had been fully supported by the party's executive committee earlier Thursday.

If she agrees with her nomination, Muellerova, an aide to outgoing Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jaromir Drabek, will take up the office at the beginning of November.

Drabek has assumed political responsibility for his former first deputy minister Vladimir Siska, now prosecuted over bribery, and decided to leave the post.

Prime Minister Petr Necas said the nomination of Drabek's successor was fully within the powers of TOP 09 leadership.

"If Ludmila Muellerova is proposed as the official candidate for the post, I will meet her soon to be informed about her idea of working in the sphere. Then I will decide on her possible appointment," he added.

"She knows the house very well, she also knows very well social problems," Schwarzenberg said.

Ten years ago, Muellerova worked at the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry as deputy minister. Then she was elected to the Senate and after leaving the upper house, she worked as Drabek's aide.

"It is an office with a large responsibility to the general public, to the clients of social care and, last but not least, to its own staff," Muellerova said.

"We are in the middle of a period that has brought rather significant changes and I would like to continue with them," Muellerova said.

She highlighted the bills that were to be debated in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

She said without the outvoting of President Vaclav Klaus's veto it would not be sensible to launch the pension reform.

Muellerova said there were many "real or artificially created" problems at the ministry.

She went on to defend the criticised programme of sCards, calling it substantiated.

"Here, there is a certain problem of communication either on the part of our office or the whole government," Muellerova said.

"In my view, it has not sufficiently explained to the people why they have the duty to accept the social card," she added.

The government has implemented the sCards within its social reform.

It hopes that up to 250 million crowns a year will thus be saved.

In the pilot phase, job offices have started sending hundreds of sCards and one million of them are to be distributed by the end of the year.

This year, welfare benefits are still to be sent by mail, but as of next year, this should only be possible in some special cases.

Muellerova said after the offer was made to her by Drabek, she had "mixed feelings," whether to take up a post in the government in the complicated political situation in which the government may fall and early elections may be held.

"From the viewpoint of TOP 09, I consider this very responsible," she added.

Schwarzenberg said it was her decision that demanded courage and he considered it a personal sacrifice.