CZECH GOVERNMENT WRAPS UP A GOOD WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 001281 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/NCE (TRATENSEK) E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/06/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL EZ SUBJECT: CZECH GOVERNMENT WRAPS UP A GOOD WEEK IN PARLIAMENT REF: A. PRAGUE 973 ¶B. PRAGUE 1201 ¶C. PRAGUE 1234 Classified By: POLEC COUNSELOR MICHAEL DODMAN FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND ( D). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The Topolanek government again demonstrated this week that despite the tensions within the coalition and internal disputes in all three coalition parties, the government can come together on important votes and continues to press ahead with its agenda. Although the government's victory in this week's vote of no confidence and the votes on the 2008 budget and the 2008 foreign deployments bill was never really in doubt, it should give the coalition a boost and another incentive to sort out its internal divisions. Those divisions, however, intensified this week with the prospect of former DPM Jiri Cunek's return to the cabinet. The opposition's relatively constructive approach to the 2008 foreign deployments bill is the other piece of good news this week. If the opposition takes a similar approach to MD, the agreements would have a much higher chance of passage. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) This week's full legislative agenda of the Czech parliament proved that PM Topolanek's somewhat rickety coalition can stick together and achieve results when necessary. Like other Czech prime ministers before him, Topolanek is learning to govern with what is essentially an evenly split parliament. So far, he has established a good track record, pushing through all legislation that his government has proposed this year with one minor exception. These successes included the controversial reform bill in August (REF A). This week, Topolanek's coalition managed to win a vote of no confidence, pass the 2008 budget, and approve a series of foreign military deployments for 2008. ¶3. (C) The vote of no confidence came first and followed a five-hour raucous debate in the parliament. The opposition made the most of this opportunity to vent its grievances against the government. (Note: This was the second time the Topolanek government faced a vote of no confidence. The first was in June 2007. End Note.) The opposition's criticism focused on the government's public finance reforms, which the opposition has sought to cast as harmful to the vast majority of the Czech population. Opposition Social Democratic party (CSSD) chairman Jiri Paroubek, writing in business daily Hospodarske Noviny, also castigated the government also for various foreign policy missteps, including an approach overly focused on the United States at the expense of the EU and other partners. In the end, however, the no confidence vote was more a show than a real threat to the government. The government easily won the December 5 vote, with 101 deputies supporting the government and 97 opposing. (Note: One ODS deputy was absent due to international travel, and one CSSD deputy was absent due to illness. End Note) According to ODS deputy Marek Benda and some political commentators, the no confidence vote was driven more by internal CSSD developments rather than any real desire to see the government fall. Paroubek is still seeking to unite the party behind him, nine months after the party congress elected him with only 60 percent of the votes. ¶4. (SBU) By the time the Chamber of Deputies took up the 2008 budget bill for the third reading, the result was also predetermined. The coalition had done its homework and made sure to resolve nearly all internal differences before the bill reached the floor. Those differences included, for example, funding for education, an issue of key importance to the Greens. Two Green deputies initially threatened to vote against the budget unless more funding was made available for education. Milos Melcak, one the two CSSD renegade deputies on whom the Topolanek government relies to stay in power, added his voice in calling for more education funding, and the government responded with 933 million in extra funding. This funding is in addition to the annual "carving up the bear" exercise that earmarks funding for parliamentarians' districts (REF B). The only coalition deputy who abstained from the vote on the budget was the Greens' Vera Jakubkova, who objected to the budget's low level of funding for public transportation. The final party-line vote on the budget was therefore 100 to 97. (Note: In addition to the one abstention, two deputies were absent during the voting as noted above. End Note.) ¶5. (C) The vote on the 2008 foreign military deployments was much more interesting, in that the CSSD did not oppose the government's proposals as a block. Paroubek did not enforce party discipline, and as a result, the voting on the individual deployments demonstrates that there are perhaps two dozen CSSD deputies who are reasonable and thoughtful PRAGUE 00001281 002 OF 002 when it comes to foreign policy issues and who support Czech military engagement abroad. While the noncontroversial deployments to Bosnia and Kosovo gained 156 and 153 pro votes respectively, the support for deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq dropped to 125 and 129 respectively (further details reported septel). Paroubek explained to us that the lower level of support among CSSD deputies for the Afghanistan and Iraq deployments was essentially a nod of solidarity toward the KSCM, which of course opposed all the deployments. Paroubek admitted that he was one of those who were "nodding" toward KSCM. In our view, however, the drop in CSSD support for the Afghanistan and Iraq deployments reflects rather an effort at careful positioning on the part of Paroubek and others so that they cannot be viewed as supporting missions that may become publicly unpopular if they result in casualties and deaths. ¶6. (C) With the parliament voting today to recess for the holidays, this week essentially marks the conclusion of a modestly successful first year for the Topolanek government. Perhaps not surprisingly, the year ended much as it began for the Topolanek coalition -- with another Cunek-related dilemma. The resignation of the scandal-plagued DPM Jiri Cunek in November turned out to be short-lived (REF C). He took the decision of the Supreme State Prosecutor to stop the corruption investigation against him as a green light to return to the cabinet. Without a clear alternative, his party, KDU-CSL, decided to play along and support his return. However, both Cunek and Topolanek, who initially signaled that Cunek could reclaim his DPM and Minister for Regional Development positions, miscalculated. The Greens, who had problems with Cunek in the cabinet from the beginning, publicly stated that they would not tolerate his return. In the next several weeks, Topolanek will be busily squaring the proverbial circle in an attempt to find another compromise among his coalition partners. He may, if KDU-CSL agree to it, decide to punt and wait for the results of the next KDU-CSL party congress planned for the spring. Former KDU-CSL chairman and current Minister without Portfolio Cyril Svoboda told Ambassador Graber that the party will be looking to start with a clean slate at the spring congress. In other words, Cunek would lose the chairmanship and the problem of returning him to the cabinet against the Greens' objections would disappear. ¶7. (C) COMMENT: The latest installment of the Cunek versus Greens drama tarnished the otherwise successful week for the Topolanek coalition. The government held its own against the opposition in three key votes and demonstrated that it has not lost its effectiveness and its ability to keep the deputies united, despite the numerous intra-coalition and intra-party problems. We do consider it significant that the government was able to attract significant support from CSSD ranks for its foreign deployment proposals and that Paroubek chose to allow the CSSD deputies to vote their conscience. Winning opposition support for the deployments was a government priority, with both the Defense and Foreign Ministers lobbying the CSSD caucus earlier this week. A senior MFA official expressed pleasure in the results, saying the government got what it needed. ¶8. (C) COMMENT CONTINUED: This week's votes on the foreign deployments and our own outreach to the parliamentarians have made clear that there are several CSSD deputies who, if allowed to do so by their party, would vote for the radar. It is too early to tell whether Paroubek would be prepared to make the same concession and not enforce party discipline when the MD agreements come up for a vote in the parliament next year. With his very vocal opposition to MD, Paroubek has been able to score many points against the government. In private, however, Paroubek has been more constructive and has always been careful to leave himself some maneuvering room. Graber