Yearbook 2010
Czech Republic. After severe political divisions, the
Czech Republic had lived with an expedition minister for
almost a year, when President Václav Klaus in February
announced elections.
Former Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek was forced to leave
his post as leader of the market-oriented Democratic
Citizenship Party, ODS, following scandalous statements
about both the church and Jews and homosexuals. Topolánek's
departure paved the way for Petr Nečas as party leader and
top candidate for ODS in the May elections.
According to
COUNTRYAAH, the Social Democrats, CSSD, led a lot in public opinion
and had the support of close to a third of voters. But in
the election, the party had to settle for 22 percent of the
vote, not long before the ODS, which took 20.2 percent. Both
lost large votes to two new parties, the Conservative TOP 09
(Tradition, Responsibility and Prosperity) and the
middle-right party VV (Public Affairs). TOP 09, led by the
72-year-old aristocrat and former Foreign Minister Karel
Schwarzenberg, took 16.7 percent of the vote and the VV 10.9
percent. The Communist Party retained its position and
gained 11.3 percent.
It was the center-right parties that got the majority in
the newly elected parliament. New ODS leader Petr Nečas
began negotiating a coalition that could implement the
unpopular measures needed to reduce the budget deficit both
in the short and long term. For the 2011 budget, Nečas
wanted to reduce public salaries. In addition, both the
pension system and the healthcare system were considered in
need of fundamental reforms, that is, deterioration and
rationalization.
One month after the election, Petr Nečas was able to
present a settlement between ODS, TOP 09 and VV, which
together had 118 of 200 seats. In early July, the tripartite
government took office with Nečas as prime minister, TOP
leader Schwarzenberg as foreign minister, and VP leader
Radek John as home minister.
In September, the government presented its tough budget
proposal for 2011 with, among other things, a 10 percent pay
cut for public employees. The goal was to keep the budget
deficit at a maximum of 4.6 percent of GDP, to gradually
reduce it to 2.9 percent in 2013 and to make the Czech
Republic ready for accession to the euro zone.
The savings package led to protests and demonstrations.
In October, ODS then had to pay for the coalition's savings
proposal. In the local elections, the party lost power in
Prague, and in the midterm elections to the Senate the
opposition was successful. The Social Democrats won a
majority, albeit barely, in the Senate.
In November, Prime Minister Petr Nečas explained that if
Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab and the British group BAE
Systems want to be included in the next bidding for the
Czech Republic's purchase of fighter aircraft, they must
first give a full account of the information that there was
bribery when the Czech Republic hired 14 Gripenplan by
Sweden.
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