KDU-CSL rejects Czech Greens' demand that Cunek should go

The Greens’ demand that Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Local Development Minister Jiri Cunek (the Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) should leave the government goes beyond the framework of the coalition agreement, KDU-CSL deputy chairman Roman Linek told CTK today.

According to the agreement, the composition of the government is a matter of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and leaders of the relevant parties, not of an agreement of all coalition partners, Linek said.

"Basically, it is impossible to accept the ethic in which one party would vote on who should be appointed by the second or the third," Linek said.

The Greens today asked Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek to call a coalition meeting to deal with "the conditions of further existence of the coalition agreement."

The Greens want a "clear agreement of the coalition" on Cunek’s resignation or dismissal.

Linek said it was a good thing that the Greens’ resolution was no ultimatum demanding that either Cunek or they would leave the government.

Cunek has been accused of having taken a half-million-crowns bribe in 2002 when he was the mayor of Vsetin, North Moravia. He pleads innocent and he has refused to step down from the government posts.

He is also facing mounting criticism that his rhetoric about Romanies was racist.