Marvanova says no

Instead of building political consensus, economists said, the government attempted to push through its tax reform package without proper planning and communication and ran into the brick wall of political opposition. The package was opposed by the Communists and the Civic Democrats (ODS) and even by the former leader of the center-right Freedom Union, Hana Marvanova, whose party forms part of the coalition government.
"They made several fundamental mistakes," said Martin Kupka, chief economist at Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka. "They shouldn't have lumped all the tax reforms into one package as some of them could perhaps have made it through separately, and they ruled that no amendments could be proposed, making the package unacceptable for the opposition."
Marvanova's vote was decisive in Parliament on Friday (September 13th) as it overturned the government's one seat majority. She had said before the vote that she had received a mandate from her voters that would not allow her to vote for tax increases. Despite the defeat, Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka promised to introduce a tax reform package based on the same principles in the next parliamentary session.
"If the government wants to do any better the next time around then they will have to communicate with the opposition, which they failed to do this time round," Janacek said. "But as this won't happen for about a month, the government's political capital will have fallen off dramatically, and they could fare worse."
Sobotka said last week that if the reform package failed he would propose an extra Kc 8 billion be added to the deficit for 2003. As for the rest of the Freedom Union, the smallest of the three parties in the government, the party's pre-election stance was that it was opposed to tax increases.
"It's clear that this party has exchanged its program for ministerial posts," Janacek said.
Few expect the government to succeed next time around with a largely unchanged package, and the consensus is the CSSD in particular will have to lower its sights if it wants to push bills through Parliament.
"The majority is too slim for major reforms, and realistically the only major thing we can expect out of this government is accession to the European Union," said Pavel Kysilka, chief economist at Ceska Sporitelna.

Vocabulary

consensus(n.)	shoda, souhlas
to push sth through (v.)	prosadit nový zákon
run into (v.)	narazit na co, setkat se s čím
lump (n)	muset se smířit s , přijmout
package (n)	(vládní) balíček, blok (opatření), soubor (návrhů)
make through (v.)	prosadit nový zákon
decisive	rozhodující, přesvědčivý (výsledek ap.)
overturn (v.)	zvrátit, změnit (rozhodnutí ap.)
fall off (v.)	(po)klesnout, snížit se, zmnšit se (počet ap.)
stance (n)	postoj, přístup, vztah k čemu
accession (n)	vstup do čeho (organizace ap.)