PRAGUE, June 27 (Reuters) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus will name Civic Democrat leader Petr Necas as the next prime minister on Monday at 0800 GMT, he said in a television interview on Sunday.
"Tomorrow at 10 a.m. I will name Petr Necas as prime minister at the castle," Klaus said. Necas is leading coalition talks with two other centre-right parties, TOP09 and Public Affairs, after the three won a combined 118 seats out of 200 in a May 28-29 electionwith pledges of austerity and fighting corruption.
Necas has said he wants a deal by early July so a new government can prepare a cost-cutting 2011 budget, although talks between the parties have dragged on because of disputes, one being over who should run the key finance ministry.
Klaus accepted the resignation of caretaker Prime Minister Jan Fischer on Friday ending a more than year-old interim cabinet that led the country after the collapse of the previous centre-right administration.
Fischer will stay on until a new cabinet takes power following a May election.
Investors, analysts and rating agencies cheered the centre-right victory as the best possible outcome from the election, and the most likely grouping to kick-start needed reforms in pensions and healthcare — areas in which the country of 10.5 million has lagged behind neighbours in the past.
Following is a brief rundown of Necas’ political career.
* The 45-year-old trained physicist was elected Civic
Democrat party chairman in June this year after unexpectedly
taking over the right-wing party only weeks before a May 28-29
election.
* The party picked Necas to lead when the previous chief,
Mirek Topolanek, resigned after a series of public relations
gaffes. Unlike many other ODS leaders, Necas is seen as
untainted by corruption scandals that rocked the pro-business
party.
* Necas has been a long-serving ODS vice-chairman who mostly
stayed out of the spotlight before taking over the party’s
election campaign. He often used "town hall-style" campaign
meetings with voters at small scale locations, like day care
centres.
* His main expertise is in social affairs and he was deputy
prime minister and social affairs minister in 2007-2009.
* A mild-mannered conservative from the country’s east and
father of four, Necas drives a small, cheap car. Many people see
him as honest, and opinion polls show he is much less divisive
than his Civc Democrats predecessor Topolanek.
