Klaus expects progress report from Topolanek by 1st week in August

President Vaclav Klaus has said he expects Civic Democrat chairman Mirek Topolanek to report to him on the state of the coalition talks by the first week of August. President Klaus said that after a round of separate meetings with the heads of all parties in parliament following a national election last month which produced a stalemate on the Czech political scene. Last month President Klaus authorised Mr Topolanek, whose party received the largest share of the votes, to launch talks on a new governing coalition. However, the negotiations have produced no concrete result as both the right and the left have 100 deputies in the 200-member lower house after the June parliamentary elections.