Czech opposition leader offers govt "kiss of life"

...centre-right government afloat until at least next year to buy time to prepare for the next election.

Conservative Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's centre-right government came to power in January after more than seven months of political wrangling following a tie between left and centre-right parties in last June's parliamentary election.

"I would even say that we will be pleased to give this government a kiss of life, for next year at least," Paroubek, ousted as prime minister after the election, told the business daily Hospodarske Noviny in an interview.

Paroubek's comments marked a change from his previous attitude. He spent months fighting for a chance to build his own cabinet and threatening to make life difficult for Topolanek.

The three-party government holds just 100 seats in the 200-seat lower house of parliament and survived a confidence vote only because two Social Democrat defectors abstained.

Paroubek is widely expected to be re-elected as Social Democrat chairman at this weekend's national party congress, at which he wants to reinvigorate the party, which has narrowed the gap with the Civic Democrats in recent opinion polls.

"The government is incompetent, weak, it will need resuscitation soon, and we need at least a year for changes to the organisation. Programme changes will require even more time," Paroubek told the business daily.

The government's lack of a lower house majority has kept financial investors on their toes.

Deputy Prime Minister Petr Necas told Reuters this week the government will either win parliamentary backing for a planned fiscal overhaul aimed at reducing an excessive deficit by this autumn or resign [ID:nL20142891].

Paroubek's Social Democrats have objected to most of the proposed changes to taxes and spending floated in local media.