Left-wing Social Democrats winning Czech election

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Left-wing Social Democrats winning Czech election
By KAREL JANICEK
The Associated Press
Saturday, May 29, 2010; 1:24 PM

PRAGUE -- The left-wing Social Democrats eked out a slim victory in the Czech Republic's parliamentary election Saturday but center-right parties won more votes overall, the country's election agency reported.

The results indicated the Social Democrats, lead by former Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek, will not be able to govern alone and may not even be able to successfully form a new government. That gives smaller parties that cleared the five-percent threshold needed to gain parliamentary representation potential prominence as possible coalition partners.

The Statistics Office said the Social Democrats won 22.1 percent of the vote while their major rival, the conservative Civic Democratic Party, received 20.2 percent.

With more than 99.8 percent of the votes from the nation's nearly 15,000 polling stations counted, a new conservative party, TOP 09, got 16.7 percent, followed by the Communists with 11.3 percent and another new party, the centrist Public Affairs, with 10.9 percent.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052901805.html

[RBInMaine]

1. Yes, and only MODERATE conservatives have won elsewhere in Europe. NOTHING like our RePukes.

[Joe Chi Minh]

2. Don't be nasty, and spoil it for our friends on here, who like to trumpet that

Europe's turned right-wing!

[Ian David]

3. And now they'll celebrating by finding some foxes!

[New Dawn]

4. This was another rigged right-wing election. No poll had the Social Democrats doing that badly.

Edit: and the headline is highly misleading, there will be another right-wing government.