Czech party leader apologises to Poles

By Simon Taylor

Date: 08/06/06

The leader of the Czech ODS party which won last weekend's election has apologised to Poland's ruling PiS party for comments which appeared in an interview, raising the prospect that the two groups could join a new right-wing bloc in the Parliament after all.

Mirek Topolánek, ODS chairman, was quoted in a Polish newspaper this week saying that the PO (Civic Platform) party should have won the Polish election, saying that its programme was closer to that of ODS. PiS politicians reacted strongly, saying that it was unlikely that they could continue to co-operate with Topolánek's party.

But Topolánek wrote to the PiS leadership yesterday (7 June), accusing the newspaper of "manipulating" his words. He said that ODS wanted to continue co-operating with the PiS, adding that he hoped the incident would not "harm so far excellent relations between our parties".

The spat between the two parties had been interpreted as the final blow to plans of UK Conservative leader David Cameron to form a new group in the Parliament with ODS and PiS.

Jan Zahradil, ODS leader in the EPP-ED, refused to comment on whether plans to form a new group would continue. "The most important thing is to heal the wound caused by a mis-understanding," he said.

Zahradil, a potential future foreign minister, said it would be very tough for ODS to form a working coalition government capable of winning support in the Czech parliament which is exactly divided with the ODS, Christian Democrats and the Greens, on the one hand, and the opposition led by the Socialists, on the other. The two groups each have exactly 100 seats.

Article reports that the leader of the Czech ODS party, which had won the 2006 Parliamentary election, apologised to Poland's ruling PiS party for comments which appeared in an interview, raising the prospect that the two groups could join a new right-wing bloc in the European Parliament after all. This new group might include the UK Conservative Party MEPs as the Conservative Party new leader, David Cameron, has said that his MEPs will break from their alliance with the European People's Party.