Final Word from Thursday, November 9, 2006
Most businesspeople tended to support the right-wing parties in the elections, hoping they would reverse ČSSD's trend toward bureaucracy and big spending. However, ODS's behavior in Parliament yesterday toward a crucial sickness-insurance bill suggests that there's a rocky road ahead in its relationship with business. ODS failed to win a delay in implementing ČSSD's convoluted plan for shifting the sickness-insurance burden to the employer, merely because 10 of the party's MPs were absent. ODS was one short of the votes needed for postponing the measure so that improvements could be made. ODS then went ahead and sided with ČSSD and the Communists to pass the bad version, which means that ODS voted to keep the 3.3% tax for 2007 and to increase the bureaucracy. ODS has a chance to get back on course by using its Senate majority to strike down the bill.[Czech Republic sick pay]