Czech centre-left Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka won a strong mandate from his party on Sunday to try to form a government with two centrist parties following an early election two weeks ago. The nearly unanimous vote by the party’s 180-strong leadership puts to rest a rebellion by several of Sobotka’s underlings, who had tried to dump the chairman after the party won the election with a poorer-than-expected 20.5% of the vote.
