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The leaderships of the two left-wing parties on the Czech political scene, the Social Democrats and the Communists are also analyzing the result of May’s general elections. The Social Democrats, though technically the winner of the elections, failed to do as well as they hoped and have been sidelined from talks on a future government due to the lack of a potential coalition partner. Then party leader Jiří Paroubek announced his resignation just hours after the results came out, leaving his deputy Bohuslav Sobotka to take over as acting chairman. The party has also replaced its election manager for the upcoming local and Senate elections in October. The party is to elect a new leadership in March of next year.

The Communist Party, which successfully defended 26 mandates in the lower house, received 2 percent less votes that it did in 2006, which it ascribes to the fact that close to 1,000 of its supporters failed to come to the polls. The average age of Communist Party supporters is 70 years.

The man most likely to become the next Czech prime minister, Petr Nečas of the Civic Democrats, has paid a visit to Prague Castle to inform President Václav Klaus about how three-party coalition talks are progressing. Mr Nečas says those talks should move up a gear after a key congress of his party this weekend, and a new cabinet should be drawing up next year’s budget within a month’s time.

The wind of change has been blowing across Central Europe this spring, with elections in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and most recently Slovakia significantly altering the political landscape. Commentators have been struck by the parallels between the latter two elections, especially the apparent failure of the countries’ two Social Democratic parties to form a government despite winning the most votes. But do the parallels end there?

One phrase, fiscal responsibility, and one word, cuts, dominate Czech economic and political life following elections to the lower house at the end of May. The right-wing coalition government in the making has pledged the former, with public spending on the block in all post-election rhetoric. We look at the rationale behind the obsession with cutting public spending, and whether the likely next Czech government is choosing the right path.

Three Czech political parties who are holding talks on forming a centre-right coalition government agreed on Tuesday on introducing tuition fees at Czech public universities. Negotiators for the Civic Democrats, TOP 09 and Public Affairs said the fees should not exceed 10,000 crowns, or 450 US dollars, per semester. Students would be able to pay the fees after graduation to make sure socially challenged students are not excluded from higher education. Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka reacted by saying his party would do everything in its power to prevent tuition fees from being approved in the lower house. Following the recent general elections, the Civic Democrat leader, Petr Nečas, is holding negotiations on forming the new government with the conservative party TOP 09 and Public Affairs. Analysts believe the new government could be formed within a month’s time.

The recent Czech general elections saw voters swing away from the established parties in favour of newcomers. One of the traditional parties that got left out in the cold were the Christian Democrats, who received just 4.4 percent of the vote, falling short of the 5 percent threshold required for seats in Parliament. Radio Prague spoke to political analyst Vít Hloušek from Brno’s Masaryk University, and asked him what led to the party’s decline.

The global ratings agency Fitch Ratings revised its outlook for the Czech Republic from stable to positive on Friday, reflecting the outcome of the recent election. The move came the same day the country’s president asked Civic Democrat leader Petr Nečas to lead talks on the next government. Centre-right parties gained a decisive majority in the country’s general election last weekend on the promise of introducing tough fiscal reforms. The Civic Democrats and two newcomers TOP 09 and Public Affairs could form a government with a comfortable majority of 118 mandates out of a possible 200 in the lower house. They still have to work out details on the economy, the deficit, fighting corruption and other issues. The majority would be the largest held by any Czech government since the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Talks are expected to last for several weeks, with Mr Nečas due to update the president in a fortnight on progress made.

President Václav Klaus has tasked the leader of the Civic Democratic Party, Petr Nečas, to try and form the country’s next government, roughly a week after the general election. Despite finishing second, the Civic Democrats – together with newcomers TOP 09 and Public Affairs – have the most realistic chance of forming a majority government. But they will have to make progress quickly: as the president made clear on Friday he expects Mr Nečas to report back to him in two weeks.

Three Czech centre-right parties - the Civic Democrats, TOP 09 and the centrist Public Affairs – on Wednesday signed an agreement to create a centre-right coalition of fiscal responsibility. The move was sanctioned by President Václav Klaus, who has so far held off from naming a prime minister designate.

The first five complaints about the conduct of the lower house elections on May 28 and 29 have been made by Czech citizens and not parties. The 10-day period for complaints to be lodged began on Wednesday. The Supreme Administrative Court said some complaints arrived ahead of Wednesday. During the last elections in 2006, 70 complaints were lodged but none were upheld. The court has 20 days after the closing date for complaints to give its verdict.