Christian, Civic Democrats: PM's apology insufficient

Both the coalition Christian Democrats and the opposition Civic Democrats have said that they consider Prime Minister Stanislav Gross's Saturday public apology as insufficient. Mr Gross's Social Democrats, on the contrary, welcomed the apology as an end to tensions within the ruling coalition.

Prime Minister Gross officially apologised on Saturday for giving rise to a political row by some of his ill-advised statements in connection with the controversy over the way he financed his apartment. In a live address to the nation in Czech Television's evening news programme, Prime Minister Gross also announced his wife was going to terminate all her business activities in order to put an end to the current political crisis. Mr Gross has been under fire for several weeks because of his failure to provide a plausible explanation of how he financed a Prague apartment five years ago and how his wife funds her business.