TABLE-Czech rightists widen lead amid govt crisis

    The Czech rightist Civic 
Democrats have widened their lead ahead of the leftist 
opposition Social Democrats as the country struggles through a 
parliamentary crisis, a poll showed on Friday. 
    Civic Democrat leader and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is 
searching to end a stalemate caused by a June election which 
gave leftist and centre-right parties 100 seats each in 
parliament. 
    It is the second time since the election that Topolanek has 
been appointed to the post. A minority Civic Democrat government 
lost a confidence vote in the lower house in October but remains 
in office as a caretaker administration. 
    Topolanek has begun talks with two other parties -- the 
Christian Democrats and the Green Party -- in an attempt to form 
a government which would fall one seat short of a parliamentary 
majority and would have to hope for support by rebels from the 
leftist opposition. 
    The Civic Democrats, the Greens and the Christian Democrats  
would together win 118 seats if an election was held now, STEM 
said. 
    The poll by the CVVM agency was conducted between Dec. 1 and 
Dec. 8 among 1,263 Czechs. 
     
 DATE    INSTITUTE   ODS    CSSD   KSCM   KDU-CSL  Greens 
 Dec 15    STEM      32.9   20.6   13.1    7.0      11.2 
 Dec 07    FI        38.8   30.9   14.3    6.6       7.2 
 Nov 23    CVVM      29.5   18.5    8.0    5.0       8.0 
 Nov 15    STEM      31.5   20.7   10.9    7.5       9.4 
 Nov 10    FI        41.1   27.7   12.7    6.0       7.1 
 Oct 16    FI        35.9   27.2   13.9    6.9       8.4 
 Oct 15    STEM      32.0   22.7   11.7    6.3      10.5 
 Sept 22   CVVM      37.0   29.5   13.0    8.0      10.0 
 Sept 21   STEM      32.8   26.6   10.0    4.2      10.3 
 Sept 18   FI        36.3   32.0   13.7    6.5       7.3 
 Aug 7     FI        41     30.8   12.3    6.3       6.9 
---------------------------------------------------------------- 
June 2-3 election    35.4   32.3   12.8    7.2       6.3 
  
 NOTE. The parties are: 
 - Civic Democratic Party (ODS) - right wing, 
liberal-conservative 
 - The Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) - leftist 
 - Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People's Party 
(KDU-CSL) - centrist 
 - The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) - far left 
 - The Greens - environmentalists, centrist. 
   Pollsters: The FI and CVVM results are based on a model 
predicting gains at the poll box, excluding those not willing to 
vote and undecided. 
   STEM results are direct voter preferences, and include 
 replies from all respondents including those not willing to 
vote. Parties should thus win a larger than indicated share of 
the vote at the election. 
    (Reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague) 
 ((Editing by Gerrard Raven; prague.newsroom@reuters.com; 
Reuters Messaging: jan.lopatka.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420-224 
190 474)) 
  Keywords: CZECH POLITICS/POLL  
    

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]