Czech Prime Minister Gross Resigns, Ending Three-Month Crisis
By: Administrative Account | Source: Bloomberg
April 25, 2005 5:19AM EST

April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross and his government stepped down today, allowing for a new cabinet of the same three parties to be formed and ending three months of political turmoil. Social Democratic Party Chairman Gross, 35, handed in his resignation as the government's leader to President Vaclav Klaus, who accepted it, presidential spokesman Petr Fucik told reporters in Prague. Klaus will meet Social Democratic Deputy Chairman Jiri Paroubek at 2 p.m. in Prague where he should name him prime minister and also appoint the new 18-member cabinet, Fucik said. Gross's resignation marks the second government collapse in this new European Union nation in less than a year. The new cabinet will probably put off changes to the pensions, tax and welfare systems to regain voters' support a year before elections, economists such as Pavel Mertlik from Raiffesenbank AS and Viktor Kotlan from Ceska Sporitelna AS said. The Social Democrats, the Christian Democratic Union- Czechoslovak People's Party and the Freedom Union-Democratic Union today signed a new coalition agreement on creation of a majority government that would survive until the elections scheduled for May or June in 2006. The crisis that led to Gross's resignation began with a dispute between the coalition partners over Gross's financial affairs and his wife's business Feb. 16 and escalated March 30 when the second-largest member of the coalition quit, leaving the Social Democrat-led cabinet with a minority in parliament. The Social Democrats, with public support at a six-year low, were under pressure to replace Gross following a series of scandals and reconstitute the coalition with the same two partners to avoid early elections or relying on the opposition Communist Party.

To contact the reporter for this story: Marketa Fiserova in Prague mfiserova@bloomberg.net Last Updated: April 25, 2005 03:52 EDT