* Czech PM wants Kalousek to stay on as finance minister
* Main opposition party protests, appointment unclear
* Budget gap soars past full-year plan
(Adds budget gap, opposition rejection, background)
By Jan Lopatka
PRAGUE, May 4 (Reuters) - Leading Czech politicians wrangled
over a new finance minister on Monday as the budget gap
ballooned, highlighting the need to find a candidate to keep
spending in check ahead of early elections planned for October.
The finance post has become a sticking point in a political
crisis that toppled outgoing Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek
halfway through the country's European Union presidency and cast
the Czechs into limbo in the heat of the global economic crisis.
Parties have been nominating candidates for a new caretaker
cabinet being formed by non-partisan Prime Minister-designate
Jan Fischer, expected to lead the country to the early vote.
Topolanek, who resigned after a March no-confidence vote,
nominated Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek to keep his post
after two other officials from the existing ministry fell by the
wayside.
"The interim cabinet has one fundamental task, and that is
the completion of an uneasy budget for the next year, and in
that respect there were three names in play that would secure
continuity," Topolanek told a news conference on Monday.
"I decided in favour of Miroslav Kalousek," Topolanek said.
But Jiri Paroubek, head of the leftist opposition Social
Democrats, whose support is key for Fischer's cabinet to win
confidence, said Kalousek was "unacceptable".
Data on Monday showed the budget deficit had doubled on an
annual basis in April. It exceeded the full-year plan and looked
set to reach 4.5-5 percent of gross domestic product for the
full year. [] []
OPPOSITION SAYS NO
President Vaclav Klaus, expected to appoint Fischer's team
on May 8, has in the past praised Kalousek and said he should
stay on. Kalousek is a close ally of Topolanek, but he is a
member of the junior ruling Christian Democrats.
Kalousek has hinted he may quit the party.
Fischer's spokesman was not available for comment, and it
was not clear if the nomination could go through.
Like elsewhere in Europe, where falling growth has hit state
revenues, the Czech budget deficit has overshot estimates.
The country's overall public sector fiscal gap is expected
to triple this year as the economy shrinks by more than 2
percent, according to ministry estimates.
Kalousek has said spending cuts will be required this year
and next to keep the central state budget gap, the main part of
the overall fiscal balance, at 150 billion crowns.
That is nearly four times the originally approved 38.1
billion crowns originally planned for 2009 on an assumption of
economic growth of 4.8 percent.
Earlier on Monday, data showed the January-April budget gap
jumped to 55.7 billion crowns, from 28.1 billion a year ago.
Overall revenues slipped 2.1 percent and spending jumped 5.4
percent as the economic crisis bit.
Markets, quiet due to a market holiday in London, showed
little reaction to the news, with bonds steady and the crown
ticking up to 26.57 per euro from 26.60.
(Additional reporting by Jan Korselt; Editing by Michael
Winfrey and Patrick Graham)
