MP Tlusty threatens not to support fiscal reforms

In an interview for the Czech newspaper Lidove noviny, Civic Democrat MP and former finance minister Vlastmil Tlusty has said he is demanding that recently unveiled fiscal reforms planned by the government be called "a package of austerity measures" or the planned 15-percent flat tax to be removed. Otherwise, Mr Tlusty said, he will not support the bill in a parliamentary vote later this year. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek - heading the government which has no assured majority - has said he is not planning on making any such changes. Both the prime minister and the labour and social affairs minister, Petr Necas, have called Mr Tlusty's demands "bizarre".

Author: Jan Velinger