Prague, Feb 6 (CTK) – The broader leadership of the Czech opposition Mayors and Independents (STAN) movement will discuss the junior government Christian Democrats’ (KDU-CSL) offer to form a coalition for the October general election, the movement’s spokesman Karel Kreml told CTk yesterday.
The KDU-CSL’s national conference agreed to form a coalition with STAN on Saturday.
STAN chairman Petr Gazdik hailed the decision, but said it is daring because a coalition of two parties must gain more than 10 percent of the vote to enter the Chamber of Deputies, while a party only needs 5 percent.
Voter preferences polls carried out as yet do not guarantee this gain.
However, the KDU-CSL chairman and Deputy Prime Minister, Pavel Belobradek , said the crossing of the 10 percent barrier is feasible and that the sentiment in the party is resolved with regard to the chosen form of cooperation.
“If we want to build a strong entity that would offer an alternative to the Social Democrats (CSSD) and the ANO movement, then I believe that this is really the correct way,” said the KDU-CSL first deputy chairman and Agriculture Minister Marian Jurecka.
The last time an election coalition succeeded in a general election was in 2W002 when the KDU-CSL together with the Freedom Union-Democratic Union (US-DEU) won 14 percent of the vote.
STAN offered to the KDU-CSL to form a new joint entity, which would only need to win 5 percent of the vote.
However, the proposal was rejected by a number of KDU-CSL regional representatives who feared that the KDU-CSL name would not be used in the election and that voters would not accept the new grouping within such a short time before the election.
STAN, for its part, rejected the alternative of its candidates running on the KDU-CSL list of candidates.
The final KDU-CSL proposal si considered reasonable.
STAN and the KDU-CSL started negotiating about election cooperation last December, when STAN ended its agreement with the rightist opposition TOP 09.
STAN and the KDU-CSL already closely cooperate in the Senate.
ms/dr
