Outgoing Social Democrat prime minister, Jiri Paroubek, said on Sunday
that he intended to press for early elections to the lower house in
2008, saying that he did not want to allow a minority Civic Democrat
government to govern until 2009, when the Czech Republic will hold the
presidency of the European Union. The chairman of the Civic Democratic
Party, Mirek Topolanek, does not agree with the notion that the next
government's mandate should end before the EU presidency term finishes
in June 2009. Earlier, Mr Paroubek had expressed the opinion that early
elections would not hurt the Czech Republic's success during the EU
presidency rotation.