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Czech PM target of attacks from his party-opposition leader ... Svejnar's candidature will be on the agenda of a meeting of the opposition CSSD central executive committee on Saturday. Skromach, one of the critics of party leader Jiri Paroubek, said the Social Democrats were bound by a national congress resolution not to vote for Klaus. "However, this does not say we should vote for Svejnar.
It is a matter of discussion. So far he seemed to have the biggest chance of concentrating the votes of others," Skromach said. The Social Democrats will debate it why Svejnar supports the construction of a U.S. radar base on Czechs soil and what is his relation to the reform of the public finances, launched by the government, Skromach said. "These are basic affairs for the decision," Skromach said, adding that Svejnar's wavering is "certainly no extenuating circumstance." "If anything, it raises the question of whether he is the candidate who can succeed," Skromach said. Skromach said while Svejnar's views differed in many respects from those held by the Social Democrats, Dienstbier, former Czechoslovak foreign minister in the early 1990s, was the closest to them of the candidates under consideration. Dienstbier would also be more acceptable for the Communists and maybe also for some Christian Democrats, Skromach said. The Greens should make it clear whether they really do not want Klaus, and if so, they should vote for someone else, he added. Skromach voiced the suspicion that some pressure might be exerted on the Christian Democrats on behalf of Klaus. "I can imagine that they are told: Do you want Cunek in the government? - It is possible, but he must be appointed by re-elected Klaus," Skromach said. Earlier this year, Jiri Cunek, chairman of the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), was accused of bribery, but his case was halted in November. He wants to return to the government of the Civic Democrats (ODS), KDU-CSL and Greens on which he was first deputy prime minister and local development minister. The "government's games with the presidential election" are connected with an anonymous tax evasion accusation of Greens leader and Deputy Prime Minister Martin Bursik, Skromach said. Svejnar, 55, a liberal economist with U.S. and Czech citizenship, said he would definitively decide next week whether he would run for president. Klaus, 66, is widely viewed as a favourite in the election as the senior ruling Civic Democrats, who have nominated him, have 122 votes out of the two houses' total 281. If all ODS legislators supported Klaus in the secret balloting, he would need a mere 19 votes from outside the ODS. Svejnar was proposed by the Greens and is conditionally supported by the Social Democrats, while the Christian Democrats and the Communists have not yet made up their mind. The presidential elections are fixed for next February.
(Ceske Noviny)
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