(Adds quotes, background, Ireland on EU treaty)
By Jan Korselt
PRAGUE, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Czech Prime Minister Mirek
Topolanek won a new mandate to lead the ruling Civic Democrat
Party on Sunday, in a vote confirming him as head of government
before the country's EU presidency starting next month.
Topolanek's victory at a party congress kept in place his
shaky minority coalition and defeated a eurosceptic wing in the
right-wing ruling party that has been campaigning for parliament
not to ratify the EU's Lisbon treaty.
He said he hoped the win would allow his cabinet, after an
expected reshuffle, to guide the central European country
through the six-month EU leadership. But he acknowledged he
could not guarantee the coalition would stay afloat.
"Hopefully we will get a while now to prepare, gather
strength for the half a year (of EU presidency) that I see as a
great responsibility," Topolanek said.
He said the global economic crisis posed a major challenge.
Growth in the export-dependent Czech economy is expected to
slow sharply from 4.7 percent to 2-3 percent next year as demand
in the euro zone slumps.
Topolanek suffered a blow when the leftist opposition
trounced the government in a regional election in October. But
he has since bounced back, as party members see little
alternative to his minority cabinet.
Topolanek's rival, Prague Mayor Pavel Bem, wanted the party
to reject the Lisbon treaty -- the centrepiece of EU efforts to
streamline decision-making after growing to 27 members -- and
replace the government with a Civic Democrat-only cabinet.
That would probably require an agreement with the leftist
Social Democrats, who demand an election next year instead of a
regular vote due in 2010, as a condition for any deal to
tolerate a Civic Democrat-led cabinet.
Topolanek won 284 votes at the party congress, to 162 for
Bem.
Topolanek's anticipated victory prompted the Civic Democrat
founder, the harshly eurosceptic President Vaclav Klaus, to give
up an honorary party chairmanship on Saturday.
Analysts said there was a risk that disgruntled rivals of
Topolanek may peel away from the party's parliamentary faction,
adding to earlier defections which have reduced the government
camp to 96 seats in the 200-seat lower house of parliament and
severely limited its ability to push through legislation.
EU TREATY ON TABLE
The government faces votes on the 2009 budget, a plan to
build a U.S. missile defence radar in the Czech Republic and on
the highly divisive Lisbon treaty.
Like most in his party, Topolanek does not like the treaty,
which will reduce individual countries' veto rights and raise
the voting power of big EU members.
But he supports it as a price worth paying to be in the
European club, a position he defended at the congress which was
expected to discuss it further on Sunday. The party's deputies
are not expected to vote unanimously on the treaty but it may
still be adopted with opposition support.
The Czechs have not yet put the treaty to a vote, a fact
that has a cast a shadow over their coming presidency of the
bloc. It has been fully approved in most EU states and rejected
only in Ireland.
All EU members must approve the treaty for it to take
effect. Diplomats said Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen would
promise EU leaders next week to hold a new referendum in Ireland
next year [].
(Reporting by Jan Korselt; writing by Jan Lopatka; editing by
Andrew Roche)
