Prime Minister V. Spidla will formally submit his resignation to the President today. Shortly after that, President V. Klaus will ask a new prime minister to form a Cabinet; it is expected that he will ask the acting Social Democrats leader S. Gross. Discussions among the major political parties are expected to také several weeks. Mr. Gross indicated he would like to form a coalition Cabinet with the same two parties (Christian Democrats and Freedom Union) that were in the previous Cabinet. However, such a coalition would have mere 99 votes in the 200-member Parliament. There can be three attempts to form a Cabinet and win a vote of confidence from Parliament before early elections are called.
Jan Hajek