PRAGUE, May 29 (Reuters) - Centre-right parties led in a
Czech election on Saturday that pitted leftist pledges of
protecting people from crisis against warnings from the right
that the left will lead the country to bankruptcy.
The following are comments by party officials and political
analysts.
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For a table of updated results, double-click []
JIRI PAROUBEK, LEADER, SOCIAL DEMOCRATS (CSSD)
"It seems that people have chosen the direction the republic
should go in, and it is a different direction than the one the
Social Democrats were offering."
PETR NECAS, LEADER, CIVIC DEMOCRATS (ODS)
"Of course, if the current trend is confirmed the election
result would enable a good dialogue between the centre-right
parties to create a government of budget responsibility... then
it would be good news for the Czech Republic."
"I am clearly convinced that the customary right should
prevail that the leader of the strongest party in the coalition
accepts this responsibility (to lead the government)."
PRESIDENT VACLAV KLAUS, AS CITED BY CTK NEWS AGENCY
"It was clear that these elections will mean an essential
weakening of the two standard political parties."
"The results are not completely surprising, showing that the
polls generally suggested the basic standing and it seems this
will be the final result as well, but they could be decided by a
small margin. I'll wait until the evening."
TOMAS LEBEDA, POLITICAL ANALYST
"If you calculate the mandates, it shows the result will be
tight again as ODS (Civic Democrats) and TOP 09 will have 98
seats and for forming coalition they would need Public Affairs
which are totally inscrutable."
"If Public Affairs made a coalition with the Social
Democrats, and let Communists back them... they would have 102
seats, according to the model. But I think it can still change."
"There is no guarantee that John will be willing to create a
coalition with rightist parties."
"The party has a number of voters that are close to the
Social Democrats, there are voters coming from the left to the
right."
DANIEL HEWITT, ECONOMIST AT BARCLAY'S CAPITAL
"With the centre right taking over the ODS will hopefully
lead a path toward fiscal prudence. They seem pretty committed
to trying to bring the deficit down. If they have a stable
government they will feel free to move through with those plans,
which likely mean expenditure reductions rather than tax
increases."
"I think this will be crown positive. I think the exchange
rate will continue to appreciate."
PAVEL SOBISEK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, UNICREDIT, PRAGUE
"An important factor is that the Christian Democrats will
fail to break the 5 percent threshold (to get into parliament).
So there will be again just five parties in Parliament."
"What is surprising and not in line with pre-election polls
is that TOP 09 will be the third strongest party, which is
important because given how the mandates are calculated it means
the two leftist parties may not reach a majority."
"It seems to me CSSD will win by a small margin but the
question is what it can offer to potential coalition partners. I
don't think it (can offer) much."
"With some good probability we can rule out the most
problematic option (for market) which was a Social
Democrat-Communist majority. So if that's right there should be
some relief in the market on Monday morning. But a question is
how much such an option was built into the market.
PETR NECAS, ELECTION LEADER, CIVIC DEMOCRATS
"If (the results) are confirmed, it would mean big chance
for creating a coalition of fiscal responsibility, a coalition
this country needs in these hard times, a coalition we are ready
for."
JAN ZAHRADIL, MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, CIVIC DEMOCRATS
(ODS)
"This is very interesting result, which opens a whole range
of possibilities, let's wait to see what the voters gave us."
"For ODS, a success would be the formation of the government
of budget responsibility, a government which prevents the Czech
Republic to fall into the deficit trap."
RADEK JOHN, PARTY LEADER, PUBLIC AFFAIRS (VV)
"It was a vote against big parties and a referendum against
(Social Democrat leader Jiri) Paroubek. We hoped that the result
would be double digit, more than 20 MPs, that is strong."
BOHUSLAV SOBOTKA, VICE-CHAIRMAN, SOCIAL DEMOCRATS (CSSD)
"We must wait for the real numbers, at the moment we are
working with estimates only."
"If the numbers were valid than it is not particularly
cheerful, but at the moment we must wait for the real numbers
and I am convinced that the Social Democrats can arise from
these elections as the real winner."
PAVEL SARADIN, POLITICAL ANALYST
"It is only an estimate and as it turned out four years ago,
it was highly overestimated.
"This only confirms some tendencies from past weeks, which
means a shift from the big parties to some of the smaller ones."
"If the final result was like these estimates, then the
centre and rightist parties are on their course to taking
power."
MILAN ZNOJ, POLITICAL ANALYST
"If the results are like this, it would be a shock to the
political scene. It would be a big victory for the right and a
defeat for the left, mainly the Social Democrats."
