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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHPG #1142/01 2581351
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151351Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY PRAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7980
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS PRAGUE 001142 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL EZ
SUBJECT: CZECH PARLIAMENT MAKES COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS, AND 
MAKES LIFE EVEN MORE DIFFICULT FOR MINORITY ODS GOVERNMENT 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Nearly 15 weeks after the June 2-3 general 
election, the Czech parliament has finalized committee 
assignments. The Social Democrats (CSSD), which came in 
second in the election behind the Civic Democrats (ODS) 
arguably took the best assignments. The smaller parties have 
fewer chairmanships than in the previous parliament, 
accenting the competition between the two main rivals.  The 
committee assignments were made within the context of ongoing 
negotiations on the formation of the minority ODS government. 
 If that government doesn't pass its vote of confidence, 
expected for October 4, some of the assignments might change. 
 The assignments for the foreign affairs and defense 
committees signify relative continuity; more conflict is 
likely on economic and social issues.  END SUMMARY 
 
¶2. (SBU) Negotiations over committee assignments in the new 
Parliament have been a critical but behind-the-scenes part of 
the wrangling that followed the deadlocked June elections. 
All the assignments were made this week, with leadership 
positions apportioned in a manner that favors the two largest 
parties.  All parties have agreed on a 2/2/1/1 formula under 
which the six-person leadership of every committee includes 2 
ODS, 2 CSSD, 1 Communist (KSCM) and 1 from either the Greens 
(SZ) or the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL).  The one exception 
will be the petition committee, which has one representative 
from each of the five parties in parliament.  The Greens were 
given one committee chair - Party Deputy Chair Ondrej Liska 
will be the Chair of the EU Committee, a position that could 
be fairly important in the run up to the Czech EU Presidency 
in 2009.  Green Chairman Martin Bursik will be on the 
Environment Committee, but will not be chair.  KDU-CSL also 
got only one chair - Libor Ambrozek, former Environment 
Minister, will be Chair of the Environment Committee. 
Several existing committees were split to create more places 
for the outgoing CSSD Ministers.  The Health and Social 
Affairs Committee, for example, was split into two new 
committees.  Outgoing Health Minister David Rath (CSSD) will 
chair the new Health Committee, outgoing Labor and Social 
Affairs Minister Zdenek Skromach (CSSD) will chair the Social 
Affairs Committee.  The previous Defense and Security 
Committee was also split in two. CSSD will get Security for 
outgoing Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan. Jan Vidim, ODS, 
who previously chaired the Defense and Security Committee 
will get the new Defense Committee. Outgoing Finance Minister 
Bohuslav Sobotka (CSSD) will chair the Budget Committee. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Jan Hamacek, a 28 year old freshman parliamentarian 
from CSSD, will be the new Chair of the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs. The outgoing Speaker of Parliament, and CSSD Shadow 
Foreign Minister, Lubomir Zaoralek is the only other CSSD 
member with significant foreign policy experience.  As a 
Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Zaoralek is unable to head 
a committee.  Hamacek was previously the CSSD International 
Secretary and an advisor to former Prime Minister Jiri 
 
SIPDIS 
Paroubek. 
The full leadership of the Foreign Affairs Committee is given 
below: 
ODS         David Seich 
ODS         Tomas Dub 
CSSD        Jan Hamacek (Chair) 
CSSD        Jan Splichal 
KDU-CSL     Cyril Svoboda 
KSCM        Katerina Konecna 
 
¶4. (SBU) The presence of former Foreign Minister Cyril 
Svoboda, an active supporter of close ties to the United 
States, is a positive.  The Communist representative is 
interesting as KSCM was expected to choose Vaclav Exner, the 
63 year old parliamentarian and ideological hard-liner who 
was on the leadership of the foreign affairs committee in the 
previous parliament.  Instead, KSCM put forward a 24 year-old 
woman with relatively little foreign affairs experience, 
Katerina Konecna.  Hamacek told post that this had been done 
in an attempt by KSCM to improve its image.  Seich is the 
only member carried over from the leadership of the previous 
committee, making predictions more difficult.  However, the 
departure of Exner, former Committee Chair Jan Kavan, and 
former Deputy Chair Vladimir Lastuvka makes it likely that 
the committee will prove easier for us to deal with.  While 
we have been impressed with Hamacek in the past, he is 
untested in a leadership role.  On missile defense -- 
possibly one of the most contentious issues this committee 
will confront -- Hamacek has been a critic but is not 
adamantly opposed. 
 
¶5. (U) The Defense Committee, led by its former Chair, Jan 
Vidim of ODS, also includes: 
ODS         Michael Hrbata 
CSSD        Antonin Seda 
CSSD        Miroslav Svoboda 
KSCM        Alexander Cerny 
 
KDU-CSL     Vlastanova Parkanova 
Cerny was on the previous Defense and Security Committee and 
is the Communist Party's Shadow Defense Minister.  As such he 
is in favor of the Czech Republic pulling out of NATO.  Seda 
was also on the previous Defense and Security Committee. 
Parkanova was a former Minister of Justice, was Deputy Chair 
of the previous Defense and Security Committee, and was 
nominated as Defense Minister in the three-party coalition 
put forward by Mirek Topolanek in an unsuccessful attempt to 
form a government earlier this summer.  With four of the six 
leaders carried over from the previous leadership, there is 
some expectation that this body will pursue positions similar 
to those of its predecessor. 
 
¶6. (U) The following is the complete list of committee 
chairs: 
 
Economic, Oldrich Vojir, ODS 
Agriculture, Jiri Papez, ODS 
Constitutional & Legal, Marek Benda, ODS 
Public Administration, Tom Zajicek, ODS 
Education and Culture   , Walter Bartos, ODS 
Defense, Jan Vidim, ODS 
Budget, Bohuslav Sobotka, CSSD 
Foreign Affairs, Jan Hamacek, CSSD 
Security, Frantisek Bublan, CSSD 
Social Affairs, Zdenek Skromach, CSSD 
Health Care, David Rath, CSSD 
Immunity, Miloslav Kala, CSSD 
Audit , Vladimir Konicek, KSCM 
Petition, Zuzka Bebarova-Rujbrova, KSCM 
Environment, Libor Ambrozek, KDU-CSL 
European Affairs, Ondrej Liska, Greens 
 
¶7. COMMENT. (SBU) Czech politics has for many months been 
plagued by a partisan stalemate as the country lumbers 
towards what is expected to become a predominantly two-party 
system.  The same rivalries that stymied progress before the 
election, during the campaign, and in the post-election 
struggle for power, will now continue thanks to the high 
number of important committee assignments given to members of 
the outgoing Social Democrat government. For example, before 
the election, CSSD Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and ODS 
Shadow Finance Minister Vlastimil Tlusty accused each other 
of presenting inaccurately hopeful budget numbers. The 
quarrel continues today with Tlusty as Finance Minister and 
Sobotka as Chairman of parliament's Budget Committee. 
Similarly, earlier this year, CSSD's Health Minister David 
Rath and ODS Shadow Health Minister Tomas Julinek exchanged 
vitriolic allegations. Julinek is now Minister of Health and 
Rath the Chair of Parliament's Health Committee. Rath was 
approved as Chairman with 102 votes, including one from 
former Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda (KDU-CSL).  He didn't 
get any votes of support from the 81 ODS parliamentarians. It 
is difficult to see Rath and Julinek setting aside their 
differences and working together in a non-partisan and 
effective manner. Of the ODS Chairs, Jan Vidim received the 
fewest votes in his confirmation. He is blamed by CSSD for 
playing a part in the release of allegations against CSSD 
just days before the election in the so-called Kubice Affair. 
The committee appointments will perpetuate the dynamic that 
has beset Czech politics recently: Things can only be 
achieved if the two large parties, ODS and CSSD cooperate. 
But during the struggle for power, initially in the 
pre-election campaign, and now during the prolonged period of 
government formation, the two sides seem more intent on 
bashing each other and scoring easy political points than in 
tending to the pressing tasks of government. 
 
¶8. (SBU) In the spheres of Foreign Affairs and Defense it 
should be easier for the ministries and relevant 
parliamentary committees to cooperate.  The Foreign Minister, 
Alexandr Vondra, and the Defense Minister, Jiri Sedivy, are 
both new and unaffiliated (although Vondra has already become 
a target for criticism from CSSD); neither of the committee 
chairs are expected to take overly political positions.  But 
the areas where solutions are urgently needed, such as the 
budget or health care, are precisely those in which personal 
and party animosities are the greatest.  The minority 
Topolanek government, with its limited shelf life, is going 
to have a difficult time passing painful, controversial, 
though much-needed reforms. If the committee assignments are 
anything to go by, its work just got tougher. 
 
¶9. (U) Another point to keep in mind is the tenuous nature of 
the assignments. If Topolanek's minority government doesn't 
pass its vote of confidence, expected on October 4, and if 
the result is the formation of a ODS-CSSD grand coalition 
government, then some of the current CSSD committee chairs 
might end up as ministers in the next government, and some of 
the current ODS ministers who are also members of parliament 
 
might want to compete for positions as committee chairs in 
parliament. In addition to the power and prestige, the job 
comes with a car and a raise from the usual MP salary of 
$2450/month to $3550/month.  There is no guarantee how long 
the newly-selected chairs will be able to keep their cars. 
MUNTER