The Czech Republic, which held general elections in June, still has no government. Judging by the atmosphere of mistrust between the main political parties, it is unlikely that the Czechs will have a government anytime soon. Five months later, the only certainty is that political stalemate is likely to continue until an early election can be agreed. Notably, the sky has not fallen. The country's institutional framework remains sturdy, the economy continues to grow apace, and some Czechs wonder if they even need government at all.
The stalemate resulted from a mathematically unlikely but politically possible scenario in which no coalition can win a majority in Parliament. In December 1992, the Czechoslovak federation had only a few days left before its two constituent parts - the Czech lands and Slovakia - would separate into two independent nation-states. The team around Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus was putting final touch-ups on the Constitution, which, inspired by the Constitution of the United States, would ensure a balance of power between the two houses of Parliament and the presidency.
Some critics worried that the lower house of Parliament, with 200 members, could end up splitting evenly between two hostile camps, unable to reach a compromise. They wanted to limit the number of MPs to 199. In the end, the authors of the Czech Constitution deemed such a scenario far too improbable. The elections to the lower house were to be conducted on a principle of proportionality, with all parties that won at least 5 percent of the vote earning a presence in the lower house. This would, the logic went, result in enough small parties and coalition possibilities to prevent gridlock.
This past June, that very unlikely scenario became reality.
The Civic Democratic Party, which Klaus established and used to head, defeated the Social Democrats and won 81 seats. The Social Democrats received 74 seats, the Communists 26 seats, the Christian Democratic Union 13 seats and the Green Party 6 seats. The Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats and Greens want to govern together, but cannot, because they only have the support of 100 MPs. To function, a government needs the support of 101 MPs.
The Social Democrats could govern with the Communists, but together they too are one MP short of a majority. A coalition of the Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and Greens would be short of a majority too. It would, therefore, need the tacit support of the Communists. Both the Christian Democrats and Greens ruled that out. It seems that a grand coalition of the Civic Democrats and Social Democrats is out of question as well, because the Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolanek and the Social Democrat leader Jiri Paroubek detest and distrust one another.
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