Final Word from Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Constitutional experts have been huddling to discuss how ODS, KDU and the Greens could use rebel votes from ČSSD to enact reforms or to call early elections. It's a very complicated issue. If the new government wins confirmation and wants to force early elections, it can likely do so, but only by relying again on rebels and by stalling for three months. The idea, though, that the new government could use Article 35 to force through reforms seems to be an intentional misrepresentation of the Constitution. Use of the dissolution article of the Constitution would in fact likely guarantee that reforms were not carried out. From a political standpoint, this misrepresentation is understandable. It's much more attractive to claim that the new rebel-backed government will be pro-reform than to admit that its main purpose is to bring on early elections or to remove Václav Klaus as president.[Czech Republic KDU-ČSL Miloš Zeman Melčák]