Czech party demands wide reshuffle in coalition row

A junior Czech coalition party demanded a wide cabinet reshuffle on Saturday in a rift that has threatened the survival of the centre-right coalition as it tries to push ahead with reforms to cut the budget deficit.
The row weakens the cabinet as it prepares reforms of the central European country's pension and health systems which have won investor confidence, cut government debt costs and firmed the crown currency.
Prime Minister Petr Necas said on Friday he intended to remove two ministers of the centrist Public Affairs party from his cabinet.
The two were connected with party leader Vit Barta who resigned from the cabinet on Friday amid allegations of corruption and entanglement of his private business with politics.
Public Affairs said on Saturday it did not want to break up the coalition but could only accept the replacement of its ministers if members from the other two coalition parties also leave, including Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek.
"The caucus has agreed today that if presumption of guilt applies to ministers for Public Affairs, this rule must apply to ministers of the other coalition parties too," Karolina Peak, head of the party's parliament caucus, told journalists.
"The caucus is in this case ready to support a government in which there will not be ministers Miroslav Kalousek, Alexandr Vondra (defence) and Ivan Fuksa (agriculture)."
Media reports have linked those three ministers, belonging to the conservative TOP09 and leading right-of-centre Civic Democrats, to non-transparent or overpriced tenders. They have denied any wrongdoing.
Necas said he would not sack the ministers. "We are not in a situation when we would replace a piece with another piece," he said in a briefing broadcast by public TV CT24.
He said he would submit Barta's resignation and his proposal to remove the other two Public Affairs ministers from cabinet to President Vaclav Klaus on Monday.
A break-up of the coalition would not necessarily lead to the fall of the cabinet but it would raise political instability and impair its ability to push through fiscal reforms.
Public Affairs is a new party that has proved an unstable factor since the coalition was formed last summer. Without it, the government would have 94 seats in the 200-seat parliament.
Cabinet plans to cut the budget gap to below 3% of GDP by 2013 from 4.7% last year and balance budgets by 2016.
Its planned sweeping reform of the pension and health systems has cheered investors and generated praise from rating agencies.