KDU-ČSL, SPOZ might cooperate in parliament after election

Prague, Feb 21 (CTK) - The Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Party of Citizens' Rights (SPOZ) might cooperate if they enter parliament in the general election next year, KDU-CSL head Pavel Belobradek said Thursday after meeting president-elect Milos Zeman who is SPOZ honorary chairman.

Zeman will officially become head of state on March 8. He won the country's first direct presidential election in January.

Both the KDU-CSL and the SPOZ are considered centrist parties and neither of them is represented in the Chamber of Deputies in this election period that is to end in mid-2014.

The KDU-CSL failed to defend its parliamentary seats in the elections in 2010 and the SPOZ, established only several months before the elections, did not enter parliament either. Opinion polls show that both parties might cross the 5-percent threshold needed to win parliamentary seats if election were held now.

Belobradek invited Zeman to the KDU-CSL election conference that will be held in June.

"Our programmes of course differ in some accents and parameters, but they coincide in many principles," Belobradek said.

He noted that the KDU-CSL and the SPOZ have already been cooperating in the Pardubice region in eastern Bohemia.

Belobradek is the first leader of a political party not represented in the lower house of parliament whom Zeman had talks with.

Belobradek said this is logical because the Christian Democrats are one of the traditional Czech political parties.